Beware what stalks you in the night, Beware the she-wolf and her bite.

Holden Caulfield, the main character in J.D. Salinger's novel Catcher in the Rye, has suddenly made himself known to me, and resulting in something similar to a wake-up call. The character himself is a queer one, he's not like the "other kids." He fails his classes, feels a sort of animosity for human beings, and takes pity in those who are less intelligent than him although he openly admits how pathetic they are.

More to the point, Holden reminds me of myself in so many ways it's almost scary. I picked up a loose copy of Catcher in the Rye on Monday so that I could finally read it (I've been waiting to pick it up after learning that Mark David Chapman was holding a copy of it after shooting John Lennon), and am already near finished with it. The novel instantly sucked me in, I feel like I'm reading a sort of psuedo-twisted-autobiography rather than a work of fiction. It almost sounds cliche to a teen like me to say it, but I feel like me and this character are one and the same.

Which brings about a more frightening point, and something that needs to be addressed quickly. If you do recall, Mark David Chapman made similar statements after murdering the aforementioned musician, that he saw himself in Holden Caulfield. Whether or not this influenced him to kill a man...I really can't say. But let's say I begin to obsess over this book like John Hinckley Jr. did...He attempted to murder Reagan back in the 80's. This book has a lot of controversey hovering around it. I'm almost afraid to finish the book in fear of what it may do to me. Will I be driven to do horrible things or act violenly in society? I believe Holden represents the epitome of a social outcast. Holden never felt he could relate to other people, he was obviously more intelligent than anyone else, and (believe me, I'm sort of paraphrasing here) viewed the human race in general as something inferior, void of intelligent life, and that he was meant for something else. Although I already sense many of these feelings myself, I don't foresee myself running out and attempting to murder a celebrity, although I'd like to. So what exactly IS the intoxicating, spellbinding effect this novel has on folks (especially me and murderers)? In the anime "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex," the main story arc follows The Laughing Man, a terrorist who models himself after various characters and themes from stories by J.D. Salinger, including Catcher in the Rye. Once again, this represents a social outcast that fell in love with the book and then made a radical decision that was bizzarre and needless to say: illegal.

So far I can make nothing out of this. I have no idea what fate holds in store for me, but I can't help but shake the feeling that this book will change my life forever...perhaps for the wrong reasons.


Oh, My brothers, me droogs will tolchok your pup on the gulliver and he'll...snuff it. Doggy guttiwuts and yarbles will be spread about your domy you merzky bratchny.