Hi, I’m finishing reading Nine Stories by Salinger and was wondering about his characters: I find all his children characters are quite adult-like while the adult characters are quite childlike. But all of them have a quality (and I say “quality” as in a characteristic, not as a judgement of quality) which I find (and this is definitely a judgement but not of quality) in equal part sweet and infuriating. Anyone cares enough to share some thoughts on my first ever Reddit post? (this is a non-judgemental quality request of attention)
Three parentheticals in 91 words? Looks like you just finished Seymour: An Introduction, not Nine Stories. At least put them in a bouquet for me.
To your point, I think it’s a correct observation, but it doesn’t bother me because I think it’s purposeful and fits the work. It’s hard to comment about an author’s entire body of work, especially when it’s not fresh, but to my memory, a lot of Salinger’s work circles around the idea of simple wisdom as found in children and the routine processes of living. The mental and emotional metamorphosis that takes place as people transition from childhood to adulthood is drastic and strange, but we often fail to appreciate that because it’s also universal. Salinger seems to want to call attention to that and to challenge the default assumption that it’s necessary and good. (I suspect that assumption was stronger and more in need of challenging when he was working and that the presence of CITR in our literary canon has had something to do with weakening it.) Salinger seems to want to say that something is being lost in that transition out of childhood that might be worth trying to hold on to. He takes children seriously because he thinks there is something we could learn from them. He highlights the childlike attributes of adults either as a model or to illustrate the connection to their past selves.