Subject: (urth) Pandora / Catcher in the Rye [Digest urth.v002.n020]

From: John Bishop <jbishop at ch.hp.com>
Date: Wed, 23 Jul 1997 16:24:45 +0000

[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