3b. How might Holden describe an intelligent conversation? What might Holden exclude when defining intelligence?
During the course of the novel, Holden is constantly seen criticizing others for their natural characteristics and sees the flaws in things rather than the good. When Holden listens on conversations, he is often disturbed because he considers them to be “Phony,” which is a characteristic that he despises. By these general hints, I believe that Holden would consider only conversations in which both people know what they are talking about and stay true to themselves.
I believe that Holden likes conversations in which both people know what they are talking about. During the course of the novel, Holden is seen as a character who is able to identify people who don’t fully understand the words that come out of his or her mouth, and Holden considers such people to be phony. He also considers people who lie or deceive others during conversations in order to make themselves look good to be phony. In some ways however, Holden may also be perceived as a person who easily puts negative labels on things, and he is also often confused and insecure. Judging by this observation, he may also be considering things he doesn’t fully understand to be phony because he does not want to believe that he doesn’t fully understand it. Holden also hinted to have certain attention problems when he mentions that he doesn’t like that fact that his debate team is penalized for digressing.
In a general sense, my theory regarding Holden’s opinions of intelligent and unintelligent conversations is based off the idea that Holden only enjoys conversations in which both people understand each other, and also very genuine conversations in which both people stay true to themselves, and most importantly, one that he can understand.
I agree with you that Holden would consider conversations where both people know what they are talking about and stay true to themselves the "intelligent" conversation. I think that Holden has a distinctive idea of how people should talk and what they should talk about but Holden also specifically looks for connections between people when they are talking. For example, in page 85-86, Holden criticizes about a girl and a Joe Yale-looking guy having a conversation. "What he was doing, he was giving her a feel under the table, and at the same time telling her all about some guy in his dorm that had eaten a whole bottle of aspirin and nearly committed suicide... Imagine giving somebody a feel and telling them about a guy committing suicide at the same time! They killed me." I thought this would be a good example to explain what I meant by connection because obviously between this couple, they can't quite build a connection between themselves when he's telling a tragic story about a boy that almost died, while he's touching her.
ReplyDeleteTo Holden, intelligent conversation would be somewhat like a conversation that him and Phoebe has. Like you said, their conversation is genuine and people stay true to themselves and know what they are talking about.