J.D. Salinger, master of the short story and patron saint of disaffected teenagers, passed away last week at the age of 91. From the time he published the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish,” he was almost instantly added to the canon of American literature — a new, distinct voice that sought insight into the urban ennui of youth and the young at heart. He would go on to put out a body of work that was both incredibly brief and incredibly influential.
Writers have been rushing to praise him, calling him the most important American writer since Hemingway or even Mark Twain, and those men and women may have a case. Critic Louis Menand wrote in the New Yorker earlier in the decade about how rewrites of “The Catcher in the Rye” had become “a literary genre all its own,” citing such highly respected work as Sylvia Plath’s “The Bell Jar” and the work of Hunter S. Thomspson. It is doubtful that modern literature would be the same without the notorious recluse. We may not have had the same John Updike, Philip Roth or other chronicles of post-war America.
Of course, Salinger’s influence did not just spread over the literature of the 20th and 21st centuries. His work has become a pop culture touchstone, becoming easy shorthand for teenage alienation and an insatiable need to create. So if one must mourn the loss of a great writer, it might hurt less to go back and enjoy the piece of pop that he inspired.
Salinger was famously antagonistic against the film industry (even writing in “The Catcher in the Rye,” “If there’s one thing I hate, it’s the movies. Don’t even mention them to me.” It’s a perfect summary of the author’s own feelings.) His estate was fiercely protective of his work, denying any number of possible adaptations of his work. Even with big names like Marlon Brando pushing to make a movie version of “The Catcher in The Rye,” there was no give from the author. But that didn’t mean that Holden was kept from the big screen.
If one wants to see a film version of Salinger’s characters, a quick peruse of Wes Anderson’s film catalogue is all one needs. The Max Fisher of “Rushmore” is Holden in reverse. He’s much more socially extroverted, and sees his private school as a sanctuary rather than a prison, but his social alienation is sucked right out of Salinger’s tale. The Glass family — the protagonists of much of Salinger’s short fiction — were the direct inspiration for “The Royal Tenenbaums,” but the mixture of support and disappointment family can provide shoot through Anderson’s entire catalogue.
While it might be a stretch to say that any film that includes an angsty teenager is homage to Salinger, there are many films that use his rye humor as an integral part of their teenage disillusionment. His books have become visual shorthand — show a character carrying a copy of “The Catcher in the Rye,” and we generally have an idea of what’s going on in their head.
The music community had a similar relationship with the author. While never as contentious as his relationship with the film industry, the man who shunned pop culture must have had mixed feelings about his creations being co-opted for songs. That being said, some truly great music has been inspired by Salinger’s work.
Working backwards, “Catcher in the Rye” by Guns N’ Roses, off of “Chinese Democracy,” is a song about the most heinous event associated with the author’s work, the murder of John Lennon by Mark David Chapman. Chapman claimed the book was his biggest inspiration, and that Lennon deserved death because he was one of the “phonies” that Holden decried. That traumatic event has been captured in all media, but Axl Rose’s intricate ballad captures a mix of anger and sadness that reflects both the assassination and the anti-hero of Salinger’s book.
Other musical acts, from the Jonas Brothers to the Offspring, have used his characters as direct inspirations. Green Day’s “Who Wrote Holden Caulfield” is a tribute to literature’s biggest punk icon. On the other side of the rock spectrum, Belle & Sebastian’s “La Pastie de la Bourgeoisie” is about a young bookish girl losing herself in “The Catcher in the Rye” and looking for a boy like Holden to call her own. Even Billy Joel calls out Holden Caulfield as a generation-defining icon in “We Didn’t Start the Fire” (is there a greater honor?).
His ghosts remain on television. Who is our newest icon of youth rebellion if not Bart Simpson? Could the claustrophobic ennui of “Mad Men” be traced right back to Salinger’s short fiction? Matt Weiner, the creator of “Mad Men,” said he read Salinger as a way to hit the mannerisms of the ‘60s as accurately as possible. But it wasn’t just the mannerisms of a certain decade that was Salinger’s skill. He is so influential because he was able to tap into a sense of youth that everybody still searches for, in the world of pop culture and beyond.
You can reach this staff writer at mrichardson@theeagleonline.com.
