NP: Catcher in the Rye

[Paul Mackin]

Cat Hamilton wrote:

> For those of you out there who love conspiracies, I wonder if you could
> point me to articles/web pages on The Catcher in the Rye and it's role as a
> supposed instigator of violence.  I've found plenty of stuff on Mark David
> Chapman, but wasn't the book linked with other assassinations and occult
> activity?  It's for a paper on the historical significance of the book and
> it would help me out a bit.  Thanks ahead of time.
>

That kind of tie in would certainly be an interesting addition to a paper on
this famous book. It may be that the connection to the John Lennon
assassination by Mark David Chapman was purely the result of the fact that the
title of the book (based  as I recall on a misshearing by Holden Caufield of
the song "Coming through the Rye") happened to rhyme with "John Lennon must
die."  Has it been claimed that other ideas presented in the book somehow
advocated assassinating American cult heros? I still have a copy here and
perhaps will reread it.

P.