the_catcher_in_the_rye twiggie my favourite book in the whole world. i never get sick of it. 010120 ... pathwrat holden-- he so crazy! 010209 ... twiggie he's wonderful though. i wish he were real, and that he never died. but that's why it's better that he's in a book. because he will never die that way. 010209 ... pathwrat It's odd that you would say that... It's something Holden would say too, I think. He was just trying to preserve what he finds pure and innocent and best in the world. To protect it. 010210 ... twiggie With some books I want to read more once I'm finished, I want the characters to do more new things for me to read about. Sometimes I think that about Holden, but then I think it'll just ruin everything. I never grow tired of reading the catcher in the rye. I don't care if he does the same things over and over and over again. 010220 ... Rhin I will never forget the first time I read this book. Miss Apple gave it to me. I was 13 years old. I locked myself in my room, curled up under my canopy, and became completely enthralled with this story. I remember experiencing over-whelming feelings of anxiety, concerning my own existence. Holden forced me to think about who I was, and I didn't want to think about who I was. It hurt too much. I just wanted to be... 010221 ... kill rhythm of all the books i was forced to read, i have to say this is one of the best. i actually didnt mind reading it. 020413 ... little wonder I gave it to Vanessa to borrow, and she's already starting to say "goddamn" all of the time. 020413 ... girl_jane There was something unreasonably real about this book. The thought process of Holden seemed true to a 16 year old boy, not an author trying to write the thought process of a 16 year old boy. Holden is the first fictional character that I've had a crush on. 020414 ... Jenna When I first read it, at 13, I checked out the 20-year-old hard bound copy from the adult section of my local small town library. It seemed forbidden because of that, and it seemed like Holden was revealing all of the truths of the world. I miss that feeling. I feel lost now. 020414 ... margaux i re-read it again recently, and i would recommend doing so for anyone who enjoys the book. on a side note, i'm so glad they never made it into a movie. 080101 ... cool the first book i ever read that made me go "cool". i want to re-read it again soon. i just seen the movie "the good girl." made me think of it. 080102 ... daf Hello again, Today I'd like to take you all inside my private library which contains dusty tomes of stupidity and lore which I've been collecting for as long as I've been able to. Today's selection is an amazing little piece of Americana called: National Security Management: Global Psychological Conflict (published by the Industrial College of the Armed Forces.) Although there's no ISBN, here is the information available to me, if you should happen to want to pick up a copy. 1. Published by The Industrial College of the Armed Forces Washington D.C. 1961 2. Edited by Ralph Sanders and Fred R. Brown 3. This copy was printed, according to a small inscription at the end of the index, in 1967 under U.S. Printing Office designation 1967 - O - 271 - 427 --------------------------------------------- The volume itself is a very interesting glimpse into the thinking behind cold war propaganda and agitation methods used by both sides during the 60s. Of course, the U.S. is painted in the rosiest of lights, but..to be honest, the treatment of the Soviet history was less brutal, and more evenhanded than I'd expected. A tribute to whoever wrote it I suppose. Particularly considering the times. One thing about this volume was EXTREMELY interesting to me, however..which is why I bought it. There was a list of propaganda points on pg 58 that seemed to parallel a fake(?) document that has been circulating around the internet for quite some time under the title "The Communist Manifesto." This list wasn't written by Lenin or Stalin as far as I can tell, but was composed by the editors of Global Psychological Conflict and reads like this: "SPECIFIC GOALS OF THE COMMUNIST EFFORT" 1. The creation of a psychologically strong, obedient, disciplined, steadfast, and iron-willed leadership core which thinks and behaves in a certain way, in that way only, and in that way for a long time regardless of obstacles. 2. The creation of a larger of oriented propagandists who spread Communist notions and are instrumental in creating and maintaining a suitable frame of reference imposed upon non-Communists. 3. The creation in both groups of a burning sense of hatred. 4. Docility, discipline, and controllability of subject populations which must be commanded by the unopposed will of the party leadership. 5. The creation, in the ruling, upper, and intellectual classes of Non-Communist societies, of frustration, confusion, pessimism, guilt, fear, defeatism, hopelessness, and neurosis, of lack of will, in essence the psychological destruction of anti-Communist leadership. 6. The splitting of a society into many competing and mutually hostile groups and the sapping of the spirit of loyalty, community, mutual helpfulness, positive expectation, and willingness to take risks and to act. 7. The creation and stimulation of an all-pervading sense of fear and anxiety, whether it be fastened onto the dangers of nuclear war, or physical terror, or professional, social, and human ruin. 8. The capture of the time dimension in the sense that an expectation of cataclysm and no progress under capitalism is established and paired with affirmed expectation that the future belongs to communism 9. The promise of relief from all troubles by means of an infallible as well as inevitable solution. 10. The semantic domination of intellectual, emotional, and socio-political life as well as the semantic control of all political argument. 11. The weakening and destruction of national conscience in the Free World and the inculcation of bad conscience about firm opposition to communism and the ideals usurped and distorted by it. --------------------------------------------- What's really funny, is that with few exceptions, our society is using these same techniques on its own people..today. Are we Communists now? Or does that simply highlight what great techniques those are for maintaining control of large populations? Maybe all governing bodies take similar steps in order to "maintain the peace." I'll try to share more about this book with you. Like I said it's quite an interesting piece. Until then..happy reading! 080102 ... dafremen =D haven't done that in awhile. Well it's here in the rye now... 080102 ... Someday my pain... "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around--nobody big, I mean--except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff--I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy." 140212 what's it to you? who go blather from