URTH |
From: John Bishop <jbishop@ch.hp.com> Subject: (urth) Pandora / Catcher in the Rye [Digest urth.v002.n020] Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 16:24:45 [Posted from URTH, a mailing list about Gene Wolfe's New Sun and other works] mantis-- Well, when I started to read _Pandora_by_Holly_Hollander_ and found myself reading a monologue by an observant but a bit alienated teenager, _Catcher_ instantly sprang to mind. Gene Wolfe puts really obscure references in his works (e.g. the torture machine in _Shadow_ which writes on the clients' bodies is from Kafka's _The_Penal_Colony_). I can't believe he wouldn't make the _Catcher_ connection. Other than that, I don't believe there are that many parallels; Holden Caulfield doesn't solve a murder, and Holly doesn't go to NYC. But that wonderful voice of innocence which thinks it's cynical--that was the same. Maybe I need to re-read _Catcher_; but I remember not liking it, and I've other things to read. -John