Catcher in the Rye and TKMockingbird out of American Schools

[hadespussercats]

Dammit... I've been misled... The teach was putting black perspective everywhere, esp in Reflections in a Golden Eye , The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or Sapphira and the Slave Girl... Of course, I wouldn't know it was white stuff, I was too busy reading Michael Moorcock and Friz Leiber at the time.

Yeah, and, um, incidentally,
Harper Lee:


I guess women are the blacks of whites.

[Cormac]

Dammit... I've been misled... The teach was putting black perspective everywhere, esp in Reflections in a Golden Eye , The Heart is a Lonely Hunter or Sapphira and the Slave Girl... Of course, I wouldn't know it was white stuff, I was too busy reading Michael Moorcock and Friz Leiber at the time.

Yeah, and, um, incidentally,
Harper Lee:


I guess women are the blacks of whites.

I think you'll find that that is the Irish. (Haven't you seen "The Commitments".

[hadespussercats]

That was the reference!

[Coito ergo sum]

Never read Catcher in the Rye either. I thought I did for ages but then I realised I was getting mixed up with Of Mice and Men for some reason

Of Mice and Men is actually a quality, enjoyable, well-written book. But, you ought to be drawn, quartered and feed to the hogs for mentioning Salinger in the same breath as Steinbeck. Steinbeck can actually write.

[Coito ergo sum]

I love you. I would like to bear your children... if you'll have me fuck off get fucked . dont mind me just trying to work out where the filter is

LOL - I just noticed that. I must have typed something that was auto replaced. WTF! What I mean is for Salinger to go F himself.

[Coito ergo sum]

I just realised Coito thought I meant Catcher in the Rye when I said 'never read it' (a direct response to the last line of his OP) the first time

Oh, sorry. I thought everyone read TKaM. If you haven't, read it today. You won't be sorry.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that Harper Lee never wrote that book, though. I thought that after I first read it, mainly because I learned she never published any other novels or anything of consequence since then. it just doesn't stand to reason that she would write NOTHING else. Someone who could write a novel like that, I mean....she doesn't even want to write something else for fun? Not a single other story came to mind in the last 50 odd years? I suspected the reason she didn't is that whatever she would try to write would expose her for not having written TKaM.

There are others who have theorized that Truman Capote actually wrote it. I think he denied it strenuously.

[Coito ergo sum]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional book. Everyone should read it to their dog.

Tell me you at least saw the movie.... EDIT -- oops, I misread your "dunno" lol.

[Coito ergo sum]

I can understand how TK Mockingbird would resonate with people from Britain and America, two countries dripping with white guilt, but as an Irish person, whose people never harmed anyone except the odd occupational force, I'm not sure it would have the same resonance.

Well, maybe I might feel a special empathy with the black guy to a degree you lot may fully understand.

Hm. You think feeling guilty about slavery is necessary to consider TKAM a compelling read?

I don't.

I agree.

But...maybe we should start a thread about it on Apelust? LOL. I think like NOMAD on Star Trek, their brains will self-destruct over the accusation of rape against a male, vs accusation of rape by a black male.... "This does not compute! Apelust knows that all rape accusations by women are true! Women never lie about rape! Tom Robinson is a male! Therefore, Tom Robinson is guilty! But, Tom Robinson is black, so the allegations against him must be false! Allegations cannot be both true and false! Error! Error! Error!!!"

LOL

[Coito ergo sum]

I think those that are disappointed in it may be going into it with unrealistic expectations or certain preconceived notions. You need to toss those out and just appreciate the book for what it is...:

If one expects Salinger to write a pompous novel with a douchy main character...one will not be disappointed at all...

[hadespussercats]

I just realised Coito thought I meant Catcher in the Rye when I said 'never read it' (a direct response to the last line of his OP) the first time

Oh, sorry. I thought everyone read TKaM. If you haven't, read it today. You won't be sorry.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that Harper Lee never wrote that book, though. I thought that after I first read it, mainly because I learned she never published any other novels or anything of consequence since then. it just doesn't stand to reason that she would write NOTHING else. Someone who could write a novel like that, I mean....she doesn't even want to write something else for fun? Not a single other story came to mind in the last 50 odd years? I suspected the reason she didn't is that whatever she would try to write would expose her for not having written TKaM.

There are others who have theorized that Truman Capote actually wrote it. I think he denied it strenuously.

What, you don't think it's possible to recognize you have one good story in you, and leave it at that? one and done?

There are plenty of writers I wish had that sort of self-awareness.

Other possibility-- having a crazy huge hit first time out can be the kiss of death to anything published subsequently.

I understand she worked as an editor.

As for TC writing it-- it is not neaaaaarly bleak enough to be his work. Even his light work was dark, if you looked close.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Haven't read TKaM. Don't want to. Haven't seen the movie either.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

While we are at it, who wrote Gone with the Wind for Margaret Mitchell? Seeing as no author capable of writing a Pulitzer prize winning novel can posibly only have one book in them!

And while we are at it, when is Oscar's sequel to Dorian Grey coming out? Or the follow-up to Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago? And which of the other Brontë sisters wrote Wuthering Heights for Emily?

Invisible Man, mentioned above, was Ralph Ellison's only published work, Black Beauty was Anna Sewell's, A Confederacy of Dunces (another Pulitzer winner) was Toole's and Sylvia Plath's only excursion into lengthy prose was the Bell Jar. Who did the ghost writing for these? Was Capote really that prolific?

I am afraid that you are guilty of repeating a long-disproven urban myth, CES. Harper Lee wrote TKAM. Capote's only involvement was in urging her to pulish it despite her protestations that it wasn't anywhere near good enough!

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Mead could have had a fixer go over her book and make important changes. I know one author that happened to that also never wrote again. He was not happy with the changes and gave up writing. But he took the checks.

[Drewish]

To Kill a Mockingbird is an exceptional book. Everyone should read it to their dog.

What's your take on it hades?

I found the device of telling the story not only from the girl's perspective, but mindset too, to be really interesting. It's not something I've seen done well before or since. Plus, I liked how completely I picture the scenes in the book... so well I can still see them now, probably 8 years or more since the last time I read it.

Rolling Thunder Hear My Cry

Plus that book had the advantage of being written from a black character's perspective and having relatable black characters, not just treating them like infantile 'others' as TKMB did.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Song of Solomon I liked.