So these days its all the rage to compare anime to literature, in particular the catcher in the rye to any anime you can think of. Well fuck that! I’m gonna compare it to Curb Your Enthusiasm
Curb Your Enthusiasm is the metafictional tale of Larry David(co-creator of seinfeld), and how fate seems to have it in for him. Larry constantly finds himself in situations that make him seem homophobic, racist, sexist, offensive, pedophilic, and just like a general all around asshole. Of course to the trained Seinfeld dvd wielding powergeek Larry David is a man who has done nothing wrong. He has nothing but pure intentions at heart. He is a man who knows what he wants, but has no idea of the social norms prohibiting him.
The same could be said of Holden Caulfield.
Holden is a manboy who knows what he wants, but has no idea how to bring about the change he desires. He like Larry David, complains and bitches and moans a lot.
For instance at one point Larry begins to fund a new restaurant along with some fellow celebrities, and the chef he hires is bald just like Larry. Until one day Larry sees him wearing a toupee, and being a general over all “phony”. He immediately gets fired by Larry. I believe if it was Holden the same thing would’ve happened.
Holden, as a character is intriguing and fun, as a person…well he’s just an asshole. The youth in me wants to crank The Pillows to 11 and blaze through the misadventures of Holden the anti-hero. The sensible adult in me sees him as a bratty teenage asshole with no aims in life. Take for instance, when he visited his former teacher’s house to sleep over. Holden awoke in the night to his former teacher petting his face, and freaked the fuck out. Assuming, as a child would, that this was a homophobic pedophilic rapefest. This maybe true, but as with occam’s razor it was more likely that it was a simpler event. Perhaps due to him being an older professor with no kids, he was lonely. Larry david being the childish manboy that he is would’ve likely assumed the same thing.
Insert pederastical rape joke
August 7, 2008 at 7:19 am
[...] Asperger’s Anime Blogger contrasts Holden to the hero of The World Ends With You; and berkles draws a connection between Holden and Larry Davi- wait, what does Curb Your Enthusiasm have to do with [...]
August 27, 2008 at 10:48 pm
Oh shit, that was great. I haven’t read Catcher in the Rye, because as a heterosexual male, I don’t read anything that doesn’t have a stupidly dressed cartoon on the cover, however, I do watch plenty of the awesomeness that is Curb Your Enthusiasm, so I can use that as my excuse to continue to not read Catcher in the Rye. Though the thought of reading something that goes well with listening to the Pillows intrigues me.