We have a first entry! I like how the goldfish is sort of
peeking a smile at us. :o)

I imagine if they won, they'd also need me to send a check or money order..

Happy Bernie? :o)

But I
know a couple of people who haven't read Catcher
and I plan to ask them this question: looking at these
creations, what idea of the book do you get? It sure seems
like art has a context now! Those who haven't read the book
probably can appreciate some of the humor, the artistic
expertise, and the air, certainly. But those of us who have
read the book can love these pieces!

Just a bit of
philosophical musing..

Very interesting! Waiting for other non-Catcher visitors to
comment.. :o)

More comments: allusion is certainly part of art. Yet that
art might convey something to people completely unfamiliar
with the subject. So another bit of irony in life, eh? I
don't know: I mean, I picture this as a gallery of art by
and for Catcher fans, so allusion is going to have a huge
part of it. You can't draw a lily pond without any lilies
or water. Yet it also seems important to ask if non-catcher
fans would come away with some sense of the book and
whether they'd be interested in reading it or not.

Another observation: it seems we could have several
categories and each piece would do differently on each:
artistic skill, appeal to fans, conveying the subject to
non-fans, humor, cleverness, simplicity, sensitivity/care,
intellectual, emotional, ... (no, there won't be different
categories of polling -- this sort of thinking is why I
should never judge art!)

Note from Suzanne: this message and the previous are from the same IP and submitted seven minutes apart -- doubtless the same person.

A bit of information: the pink goo guy is not Bono from U2. The artist wrote me that the boy in the art is not at all widely recognizeable, nothing like Bono from U2. He might not even be widely recognizeable in his country, which is not the UK or the US.

About realistic depictions of Holden, I think people, especially today, have a great ability to consider images and presentations and then form their impressions in a free flowing manner. Think of how many images there are of Christ, movies of Dickens stories, Huck Finn and on and on. I still form my own image reading a book despite all of that. And think of how much advertising we are exposed to and we still don't think our looks and our lives will be great if we buy a can of soda pop (on the other hand, maybe it works on some people because they keep advertising that way, or maybe it's all just for keeping up name recognition). And the book cover you mention only portrays Holden from the side, sort of facing away. I actually suspect it would be better if there were a wide variety of images of Holden. I think when that happens, it underlines the point that it's up to the reader to form an image for themselves: what they think so-and-so looks like.

Regarding Catcher in the Rye, I think Holden's case is too ambiguous, especially since we only follow him during three days and those days were exceptional, so it'd be silly to jump to conclusions. For instance, we could conclude that Holden swore off night clubs because of his frequently saying how and why he hates them, but I'd doubt he would. Unlike the characters in ASP, Holden has no close male friends, so you can't point at personal attachments. Also his age, there is the case that too much can be read into something anyone did as a teen.

I just checked the web and it seems like there's a lot of mention of Antolini's sexuality but not Holden's (although there is a "Holden Caulfield's Lover's Blog" -- male author -- but no mention of Holden that I could find -- the web, what wonders it brings..). There was also an essay someone wrote with stuff about how homosexual (and a hypocrite) Holden is and why. I found it unconvincing. Suzanne

This is also a good time to thank people for the compliments. I am glad you found the site useful, interesting, and/or fun.

Suzanne