6 years ago
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Why the coming-of-age narrative is a conformist lie
Near the end of J D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye (1951), the novel’s hero Holden Caulfield buys his sister Phoebe a ticket to the carousel in the park and watches her ride it. It begins to rain, and Holden – having spent most of the book in some form of anxiety, disgust or depression – now nearly cries with joy. ‘I was damn near bawling, I felt so damn happy, if you want to know the truth. I don’t know why. It was just that she looked so damn nice, the way she kept going around and around...
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This is not just some European concocted social behavior. There are many cultures, in many histories that have this concept. It revolves around survival. To put the current metrics, especially in our internet world, which is a pretty new entrance to a societal construct is just foolish.