GOTCHA, CATCHER!
I was honestly quite intrigued when Mr. Mitchell mentioned the whole fiasco J. D. Salinger had with the press, so I decided to do a bit of a deep dive on it. It was quite interesting how much J. D. Salinger himself reflected Holden, or at least, how Holden would react if he were in the same situation. There were two particular instances where Holden commented on fame and entertainment industries, the very thing Salinger hated to deal with. He said his brother was “out in Hollywood … being a prostitute” (Salinger, 2). Later, he commented on the reception and recognition Ernie got for his piano skills, saying he’d hate it if he were him:
“You would've puked. … I swear to God, if I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I’d hate it. I wouldn’t even want them to clap for me. People always clap for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I’d play it in the goddam closet. …old Ernie turned around on his stool and gave this very phony, humble bow” (Salinger, 45).
Holden had no desire for any form of fame, rather, he absolutely hated it. He hated anything he perceived to be “phony” and avoided his perception of it like the plague. Similar to Holden, J. D. Salinger never wanted to entertain his idea of “phoniness” and was overall quite a bitter person. He’d eventually come to altogether refuse photos and interviews. There are countless stories of Salinger being rude to reporters and fans, but one stuck out to me in particular. Nearly 16 years ago, an article was posted about an interview with Salinger, or rather, the rejection of having one:
“I stood before Salinger the way Dorothy stood before the Wizard of Oz. My heart was hammering. ‘Mr. Salinger, I'm from New York City,’ I began. ‘I’m a reporter-’ ‘Oh, go away, please!’ he shouted, waving a dismissive hand at me. ‘I've had enough of that, please!’” (Flood).
Salinger didn’t even want to entertain the idea of an interview, so much as to shoo the reporter away not even two sentences in. It felt reminiscent of how Holden would never try to see things out. He’d always jump to the conclusion of things being phony like everything else. It’s noteworthy, though, that Holden kept most of his thoughts internally as opposed to Salinger’s outward expression.
I most importantly wanted to find the photo of Salinger apparently hitting the camera man outside of a Piggly Wiggly; it was the reason why I chose this as my blog topic to begin with, and it felt like the ultimate depiction of Holden’s bitter attitude. It was quite difficult to find real sources for this, but I think I was able to piece it together and cross check using a few miscellaneous blogs and not-so-trustworthy articles.
I found this image quite a lot, and although there weren’t any solid sources on it, I read a description that was fairly plausible. J. D. Salinger refused to take photos or have interviews, and the only recent photos of him were the result of paparazzi stalking him and sneaking into his property. After 35 years of Salinger refusing to have his photo taken, in 1988, the New York Post released a cover titled “GOTCHA, CATCHER!” featuring an angry Salinger pushing his shopping cart, about to hit the cameraman. Captured by Paul Adao and Steve Connally, the photos were some of the first people had seen of him in a long time. He had allegedly hit the camera and scolded the cameraman (Charles).
This photo looked quite sketchy (it has that weird plastic-y look a lot of AI generated photos tend to have), and I couldn’t find a proper source for it. There doesn’t seem to be a public archive of the New York Post either. I can’t find any records of the whole “GOTCHA CATCHER!” cover outside from anecdotal evidence, but it seems plausible. It’s quite possible an archive of the cover existed at some point, but so many links I found were dead so it was probably lost to time. In my search for the photo, however, I did find a couple of photos that I initially thought were the photos Mr. Mitchell was talking about.
The shopping cart seems to match the ones from Piggly Wiggly:
If turned to black and white, the colors of the photographs would match, and all the details in his outfit match too. The two buttons on the sleeve of his coat, the ribbed sweater cuff, the light collar on his shirt underneath, and if you really want to get deep into it, the little piece of hair sticking out from where his hair parts all match up between each photograph. The fact that allegedly two photographers were hired to take the photos would also explain why one is in color and the other is not. It’s likely the photos were taken at the same time, and only the photographer with the black and white camera was approached by either Salinger or the photographer himself.
Anyway, to connect my search for the Piggly Wiggly photo to The Catcher in the Rye, I wouldn’t put it past Holden to react similarly to how Salinger did. The last thing I’d want as someone who hates the concept of fame and anything remotely phony would be for a camera to be shoved in my face, especially if I had been adamantly against the press for 35 years at that point. But in the first place, I don’t think Holden would make it past the pig mascot without making some sort of comment on it’s supposed “phoniness.”
Sources (Some of these are not at all credible, but they were all I could find, especially to get context on the photographs.):
I completely agree that Holden and JD Salinger have a lot in common. There are a lot of points in the book where Salinger's writing excuses some of the double standards Holden has for society by making it seem entirely normal. I think a lot of this stems from the similarities between Holden and JD Salinger (these similarities probably made it really easy for Salinger to understand the essence of Holden's ideas).
ReplyDeleteLove this topic! It is funny how much the author's personal attitude can bleed into their main characters, especially in The Catcher in the Rye. I'm unsurprised that J. D. Salinger turned out to be a grumpy, stubborn old man. It was neat to see the photos we discussed in class, too. Good job!
ReplyDeleteWow I'm so impressed by your detective skills here! Now that you mention it, it definitely makes sense that Holden would react to "phonies" in the way Salinger reacted to the media. I wonder how much of Holden's bitterness was unintentionally influenced by Salinger's personality, and how much of it he purposefully wrote.
ReplyDeleteWow this was an interesting deep dive Sandaru! This is such a unique topic and I'm sure Salinger would've hated that this blog post exists but don't worry cause I love it. I agree that Salinger seems to act very similarly to Holden, and I think you made some really great points about how Salinger is more expressive about his hatred for fame than Holden is. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis was such an interesting blog topic! I'm impressed by all of the research you did and how you cross referenced the two photos of Salinger. I definitely agree with your comparison of Holden to Salinger. It definitely seems like he wrote Holden to be a reflection of himself. It makes you wonder what Holden would think of how famous he became.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandy! I really liked this blog post. I was also really interested in finding out about the instances Mr. Mitchell was talking about in class and this blog did a really great job of picking up the pieces and connecting them all. I'm really impressed by the paragraph where you find out the context of the black and white photo and your blog in general. It's interesting how Salinger sorta becomes D.B and how he parallels Holden's view of phonies to his own view of the media. Great job!
ReplyDeleteThis is a really interesting interpretation of the book. I definitely think that a writers voice is so important and always come through in a book. So to have a book character and an author that are already so similar would certainly result in finding many similarities between the too. It was probably easy for Salinger to write Holden’s character because the way Salinger would react is how Holden might too.
ReplyDeleteI think it's really interesting that J.D Salinger despised fame. I also think that Holden would probably be the same way considering that he didn't like his brother being in Hollywood. I think Holden thinks that art should be something that is only shared with your inner circle.
ReplyDeleteHi Sandaru!! I think your blog really expanded on some of the discussion we talked about in class. You really took it to the next level though! The connections that you describe between the author and his own character in his book almost compliment AND contradict eachother at different points in time. Its really interesting and a cool topic that you wrote about!
ReplyDeleteThis was such an engaging blog post! I love how you took the connection with Holden then deep dived into the Salinger rabbit hole. The depth of research was far more than any blog post I have made, and I was wowed when you even cross referenced Salinger's image with shopping carts from Piggly Wiggly.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really fascinating read! I love how you connected Salinger’s reclusive nature to Holden’s hatred of fame and phoniness—it really makes you think about how much of the character was a reflection of the author. Your research into the “GOTCHA, CATCHER!” cover was really impressive, especially with how you cross-checked sources. It’s interesting to consider how Holden, who despised attention, ironically became such an iconic literary figure.
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