I am Holden PAULfield.

I think that I just may be Holden Caulfield.  Well, to be witty, I think that I may actually be Holden Paulfield.  Get it?  That's my first name.  Ha.  Ain't I the most clever person you've ever met?


Anyway, I know that just about a million and one people have also identified with the protagonist of J.D. Salinger's classic The Catcher in the Rye, so you're probably thinking, "What does this guy think makes him so damn special?"  Nothing, really.  I'm not insinuating at all that I am special or that I have anything remotely special to say.  If anything, I'm acknowledging the fact that I am quite cliché.  That's usually never the case, or at least I would never admit to being very common.


I'm pretty sure that the reason why the novel has become such a classic is because we all can identify with Holden to some extent at one point in our lives.  I'm also pretty sure that every single high school English teacher in America and abroad has said that exact thing to his or her class.  I'm not trying to delve into that discussion right now because, to tell you the truth, I'm pretty bad at discussing matters of literature.  I'm not really trying to write some sort of scholarly analysis or make some profound statements.  I'd rather just rant.  I'll save the analyzing and the being profound for another day.


So I finished the book in a matter of a few days during my daily commute on the subway and sitting in Central Park and such, and it's probably the first book that I chose to read (and finish) in a very long time.  I don't often willingly read books, and it's truly a shame because I really would like to.  Most of the time, I just can't get myself to do it.  Only now, I felt different.  The Catcher in the Rye stared me in the face the second I walked into Strand Books, and I couldn't resist picking it up.  I had no real idea how I had avoided it in the past; it seems like everybody read it in the ninth grade.  Except me.  But now, I'm very happy that I read it now as opposed to 5 or so years ago when I doubt that I would have appreciated it, understood it, or even read it to begin with.  I was never good at reading assigned books.  And hell, I don't even completely appreciate or understand the novel right now.  I have no idea how confused to would have been reading it as a 14 year old.


Merely hours after I finished reading the book, I was off to the subway station heading to work when I had my first real "Oh my gosh, I'm Holden Caulfield" moment.  On my block, I passed a wooden lamppost that had the words "FUCK YOU" written quite menacingly in chalk.  I began to think of how many kids must have seen it.  If you know anything about the book, at one point near the end, Holden visits his younger sister's school and sees the same words on the wall of the staircase, and he tries to rub it off.  Part of me was very determined to wash the obscenities off the lamppost, but I was in a bit of a hurry.  The weird thing is that I've never been a stickler for not cursing around children.  I absolutely hate it when parents ask me to stop swearing when they have kids around.  I don't give a damn.  Your kids will hear them eventually.  These are the same kinds of parents who blame people like me when their little angels start rebelling and hating them.  It wasn't my fault.  Blame puberty.


Anyway, when I saw this big-ass "FUCK YOU," I started having this internal dialogue which sounded far too reminiscent of that which Holden had in the book during the same predicament.  I thought to myself, "Fuck.  I'm Holden."  Maybe I'm just pushing it a little.  The character of Holden is kind of like a well written horoscope.  He's so universal and can apply to anyone.  It's kinda like how my horoscope said that I shouldn't worry about my finances and that my love life will clear up.  That can apply to absolutely anyone.  Whatever.  Let me think that I'm just like Holden.  This blog will eventually prove just that.


I have tried many a time to start up a blog.  I've had numerous attempts (I even tried making a video blog about a year ago), and all past endeavors have not necessarily been very fruitful.  So here I am for the umpteenth time, trying this again.  But now, I have Holden on my side as inspiration.  Let's see how this turns out.