Friday, January 29, 2010

Farewell, JD Salinger


The death this week of JD Salinger is a sad moment for literature and for all those, like me, who read, loved and appreciated his books. The legendary American author of “The Catcher in the Rye" made a very powerful impression on me when I read his book as an adult for pleasure -Many had to read the book as part of a required book reading list in high school in America and at University in Morocco. I read and reread the “Catcher” and enjoyed it not because it features sexual innuendo and language but because the writer spoke profoundly and frankly to ordinary people. The book is a trageycomedy; hilarious and sad all the way to the end. I never got bored as I did with James Joyce’s Ulysses, for example, because the book spoke out-loud my innermost thoughts at countless occasions: Its antihero, Holden Caulfield, and I share our contempt for “phonies” and our sympathy with innocence and kids who are feeling lost, and lost to despair. We also share our concern over the ever-lasting and ever-so-unfair struggle between the good and the evil - or more exactly between the innocent and the corrupt.
Though I don’t like Holden Caulfield’s sexual encounters, his sexual insecurities, and confused immaturity being spoken out ‘publicly’, I agree with the writer’s use of slang, swearing, casual dilogs etc. Quite a few writers use such authentic teen language to speak to young readers. Let’s not forget, also, that all around us, Holden’s sexual encounters are nothing and chaste compared to what we see in the street, on TV, on the internet (and, to a lesser extent, to what many read in Mohammed Choukri’s - famous Moroccan writer - ‘For Bread Alone’.)
Here is an excerpt I have always loved because it not only makes one laugh but makes one think as well as is the case with George Carlin's black humor:
Anyway, he [Ossenburger] gave Pencey a pile of dough, and they named our wing after him. The first football game of the year, he came up to school in this big goddam Cadillac, and we all had to stand up in the grandstand and give him a locomotive – that's a cheer. Then, the next morning, in chapel, he made a speech that lasted about ten hours. He started off with about fifty corny jokes, just to show us what a regular guy he was. Very big deal. Then he started telling us how he was never ashamed, when he was in some kind of trouble or something, to get right down on his knees and pray to God. He told us we should always pray to God – talk to Him and all – wherever we were. He told us we ought to think of Jesus as our buddy and all. He said he talked to Jesus all the time. Even when he was driving his car. That killed me. I can just see the big phony bastard shifting into first gear and asking Jesus to send him a few more stiffs.
The only good part of his speech was right in the middle of it. He was telling us all about what a swell guy he was, what a hot-shot and all, then all of a sudden this guy sitting in the row in front of me, Edgar Marsalla, laid this terrific fart. It was a very crude thing to do, in chapel and all, but it was also quite amusing. Old Marsalla. He damn near blew the roof off. Hardly anybody laughed out loud, and old Ossenburger made out like he didn't even hear it, but old Thurmer, the headmaster, was sitting right next to him on the rostrum and all, and you could tell he heard it. Boy, was he sore.
He didn't say anything then, but the next night he made us have compulsory study hall in the academic building and he came up and made a speech. He said that the boy that had created the disturbance in chapel wasn't fit to go to Pencey. We tried to get old Marsalla to rip off another one, right while old Thurmer was making his speech, but he wasn't in the right mood. Anyway, that's where I lived at Pencey. Old Ossenburger Memorial Wing, in the new dorms.”
(The Catcher in the Rye: Chapter 3.)
The book is a treasure trove of thoughts and attitudes. You will be sorely missed, JD Salinger, but you will always be remembered as an American icon who abhorred fame and celebrity. .

Saturday, January 2, 2010

2010 New Year's Resolutions


For all their differences, people usually agree on one thing: the previous year was a very bad year, and the new one looks better. All they zoom in on are the dark places and the difficult times they had. However, the future, too, has "two roads diverged in the a yellow wood." It's human to see the grass as being greener ahead. It's human to see the New Year as a time to turn over a new leaf and to look ahead with optimism. Part of the New Year ritual is an attempt to start afresh and prepare a list of resolutions for the coming year. “An arbitrary date on the calendar doesn’t have to have any influence on me,” I often say in my internal monologue. Then, I always give in and jump on the bandwagon and create my own New Year resolution list. This is how it came out this time:

First, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I don’t like junk food. So, I have no bad eating habit to stamp out (thank God). I appreciate and I am grateful for God's blessings. So my resolution is to keep up eating salad and avoiding too much meat and thanking God for giving me more health than illness.

Second, I am a workaholic and I like it. I wonder if it is something I have to fix. And fixing it means sitting at pavement cafĂ© tables scrutinizing every passer-by or staying at home and watching all boring TV programs. So, my second resolution is to keep up the hard work and learn something new in the year ahead, especially in the field of computer technology – I love technology.

Third, I am thin – not slim – and have no extra kilos to shed. So, no need for long distance jogging. Maybe a few errands for my wife to the grocer’s on the corner and looking for my car in the parking lot – I am absent-minded at times - are enough to keep me fit.

Fourth, many people promise themselves to enjoy life more and pledge to scoot from their hectic schedules and lifestyles. But my grandmother – my first teacher – kept hammering me with a proverb that her parents had kept hammering her with: “A young idler is an old beggar.” If you don't work when you’re young, you won't have any money when you're old. So, my fourth resolution is: work hard while you’re still young and while you can, and rest when you’re old – or dead.

Fifth, people think time with the family comes before work. I don’t agree. Life is not an endless treadmill of chores. Let’s be more realistic: these chores are what makes this short life sweet and worth living. I need to work to get paid to bring bread to the table. No work means no money, no food, no clothes, no education for my kids, and no life. So, my fifth resolution is: I’ll try my best to balance my work and family responsibilities as much as I can. Because I love my family, I love working to provide for them.

All in all, Happy New Year 2010. I miss each and every one of you. I miss America; the land of order and law. The land of opportunities and freedom. I love Morocco and I hope its political leaders who have failed to live up to their election promises to set a list of resolutions to improve it economically, politically and socially.

My last wish though is I hope this New Year 2010 brings lots of good things our way all. Amen