God himself...

this mathematical mastery fucker

screwed me

while he trimmed my yucca

that's entertainment I said...

and I wrote back to 'im

and 'ee then spoke to me

see?

mathematical mastery

Holden Caulfield

"He is good at writing kids and adolescents" admit the detractors...

Having just read Catcher In The Rye and seeing what all the fuss was about (I think) I then went on to read as much Lit Crit about it as I could stand. I was just surprised, like, maybe even depressed, by how many people seem to miss the point - so many phoneys out there etc. I could go on in parody but it was done better at the time by another reviewer.

I think it WAS the novel of the C.20 as Mark Twain might've been before (haven't read that). I think what made it so good was that I am still thinking about it. What else made it so good? It's just agonising reading the memoir of a kid who thinks of himself, is thought of by his co-players in the book and mostly, by the reviewers (til I gave up, which wasn't long) as an adult, when in fact he is still a kid. Holden himself says so repeatedly, during a mostly painfully accurate and acute assessment of human nature, human development and character and is always disagreed with. He (Salinger) understands what it is to be an adolescent and be more insightful (it's a liminal space and I am trying not to over-use parentheses) than children or adults usually are.

The simple agony of the book is the beautifully realised imagining of acute loneliness felt by a little boy lost, who everyone thinks should be mature, while none of them are and while we see that 'immaturity' grow out of sane and consistently fair judgements. We can read the book as adults and obviously, we can re-assure ourselves that we do have adult advice for Holden. But how would that help?

There was one very good quote I read in the reviews. Mr Antolini would've got it - I think (see how I'm slipping into Holden without even trying?). I'll go look for it. The crux of the whole ting is whether you think Antolini was just a 'perv', was a 'perv' but was still caring and all the things Holden hoped he was - or was, in fact not a perv and was still all the things Holden hoped he was, which it is just possible could've been true had Holden not had such bad experiences which had stopped him from allowing himself to discover this fictional and yet most hopeful of facts.

Whatever. I blame the parents...

The quote was: " - " nah, can't find it. Was good tho.

Health and Beauty (a wee note after John Hollander)

You don't make scents anymore
was the last thing the Perfumier heard
at the hearing. Seeing the saw had made him
angry and the saw sighting soured his eyes -
he scented red.

The rest is make-up

Journey Of The Mad - Eye.

 oculis in coelum:

 'Jealous of Diss, was how we travelled:
We fell upon no train track,
nor electrification of the lines.
In the bitter end we hadn't even Town-Hall
to argue from and hard times beset us all'
From Suffolk gulag we fled Hugh Bigod
and many regretted thereafter:
the Jealous-Eye; the hounds of Diss;
the Retteries, the Chandlers and the Drapers -
All gone. The only blessed hope?
A Skate-park! and documented -
By all of these means were we dis-entitled:
Typographic error and archivist;
by the lack of train platform and bus-shelter;
by the rood screening of Ninian Comper;
by Leonard P, whose observations
of an over-night desertion, were, in fact
slowed, as if to lever pain to the highest,
by a thousand years....
Still, we did travel on
and a hard time we did have of it
preferring an un-ending night-walk
without the illumination
of home-fires or hearths.
Voices whispered from the roadside:
"This is all folly"....

But at last, we did reach some temperate places.
We found refuge for an island folk
By widening our boundaries and stopping
by the sea as we knew it.
We became again, professional
and when we saw this birth gave orders:
To our Butchers: 'Take out his eyes' and
to our undertakers: 'Send them to Heav'n'

'We have seen so much dying
and are now an alien people -
without homes to return to'

Cradling our copies of The Suffolk Guide
We pray for more births and a good review...

bitches are just people with a bad attitude

somewhere there's music, somewhere there's food.
How high the music? how high the moon?

where's the food?

who said that, said the moon.

said what? said the music..

so says you.

I saw two men sitting by the bins

I know what that means

the way they sat by the bins

it was hot, we are talking,

by the bins. By the bins will do.

Go men, you are men and men you are,

By the bins.

Alan.

Writing something great with no-one watching….

I was thinking about the pain of death. I listened to a lady on the radio talking about the pain of her mother’s death – from cancer of the bowel I think. See how easily I forgot?

Today I read a thing (this is your God speaking) I don’t read often.

Creation is a real cunt. You make something out of nothing; everyone thinks you’re very clever; something goes wrong – BAM, you’re the devil himself.

Fuck creation.