Breaking The Code To The Catcher In The Rye discussion

I have been reading Don QuixoteDon Quixote this month. Of course Salinger would have read this. But maybe he wouldn't full grasp the meaning of it till WW2.

This very funny tale is about a man that renames himself Don Quixote. He begins with a title or a character and then he begins acting the part of a knight-irritant. He has done all this because he has started to BELIEVE what he had been reading in the chivalry literature. It was his favorite thing to read. He had a whole library full of these kinds of books.

Over and over they talk about his "madness" and how he has gone mad.

I have been listening to Professor Roberto González Echevarría

"Don Quixote translates everything that reminds him of the world or romances of chivalry into their language. His arguments with Sancho and others about the nature of the real are one of the sources of humor in the novel, of course. Here, Cervantes displays his own gift for linguistic invention and parody. The names of the knights involved are hilarious, as is his description of the imaginary battle, has a mock epic quality. Don Quixote, hurt by stones whose names, almonds, they're called at one point, understate their ability to hurt, lose its teeth, as he had before lost part of an ear. These are the scars of time on his body that I have mentioned before. His body has diminished as the work progresses, contributing to his sorry appearance and leading to the name that Sancho gives him in the next episode. Notice that Don Quixote kills several sheep and that he has, again, been involved in a fight. Hence, he has committed crimes that come under the jurisdiction of the Holy Brotherhood, so besides the disputes about the real and the parody of the romances of chivalry it must be noted that Don Quixote and Sancho are criminals who are fugitives from justice."

Here is the reference to vomit:

" Now, I want you to — I'm sure you did — that Don Quixote and Sancho vomit on each other, here. And I want to ponder about this little episode. We already saw the purging involved in the character's evacuations, but here, I believe, that there is another suggestion. I was going to read you that passage, but the time is short, but I'm sure you remember it. Vomiting here and in the inn suggest the existence of a concretely repulsive language of pure meanings. The mouth, amidst concrete, it's a language whose effect is repulsion, mutual repulsion, but that is never a form of communication. One vomit elicits — that it is nevertheless, a form of communication — one vomit elicits the other. It is in this sense a pure language, an ironic fusion of words and things. If you think that words merely reflect reality, vomit is reality itself expressed as words, this is what I'm trying to say. Vomit contains objects, not signs, and produces bodily effects as when, in the case in the next episode, when Don Quixote smells Sancho's feces, another expression on the part of Sancho, and he asks him to move away. This consideration of language dovetails with all of the meditations about language and literature that are in the book, and it is very appropriate. I think that it should occur in an episode, where there is such a marvelous display of literary language in the description of these battles and all of these knights. So we have that literary language, and then, this concrete language of vomit, when they express each other in such a way."

http://oyc.yale.edu/spanish-and-portu...

Do you know other classic books that use vomit to convey a message? If so please comment.

Also i think it is interesting how this professor studies Don Quixote, because it is the way I am trying to study The Catcher In The Rye.

I wonder if anyone has purchased the notes from Harold Bloom on the Catcher In The Rye?

He then asked for some vial to pour it into, and as there was not one in the inn, he decided on putting it into a tin oil-bottle or flask of which the host made him a free gift; and over the flask he repeated more than eighty paternosters and as many more ave-marias, salves, and credos, accompanying each word with a cross by way of benediction, at all which there were present Sancho, the innkeeper, and the cuadrillero; for the carrier was now peacefully engaged in attending to the comfort of his mules.

This being accomplished, he felt anxious to make trial himself, on the spot, of the virtue of this precious balsam, as he considered it, and so he drank near a quart of what could not be put into the flask and remained in the pigskin in which it had been boiled; but scarcely had he done drinking when he began to vomit in such a way that nothing was left in his stomach, and with the pangs and spasms of vomiting he broke into a profuse sweat, on account of which he bade them cover him up and leave him alone. They did so, and he lay sleeping more than three hours, at the end of which he awoke and felt very great bodily relief and so much ease from his bruises that he thought himself quite cured, and verily believed he had hit upon the balsam of Fierabras; and that with this remedy he might thenceforward, without any fear, face any kind of destruction, battle, or combat, however perilous it might be.

Sancho Panza, who also regarded the amendment of his master as miraculous, begged him to give him what was left in the pigskin, which was no small quantity. Don Quixote consented, and he, taking it with both hands, in good faith and with a better will, gulped down and drained off very little less than his master. But the fact is, that the stomach of poor Sancho was of necessity not so delicate as that of his master, and so, before vomiting, he was seized with such gripings and retchings, and such sweats and faintness, that verily and truly be believed his last hour had come, and finding himself so racked and tormented he cursed the balsam and the thief that had given it to him.

Don Quixote seeing him in this state said, "It is my belief, Sancho, that this mischief comes of thy not being dubbed a knight, for I am persuaded this liquor cannot be good for those who are not so." "If your worship knew that," returned Sancho—"woe betide me and all my kindred!—why did you let me taste it?" At this moment the draught took effect, and the poor squire began to discharge both ways at such a rate that the rush mat on which he had thrown himself and the canvas blanket he had covering him were fit for nothing afterwards. He sweated and perspired with such paroxysms and convulsions that not only he himself but all present thought his end had come. This tempest and tribulation lasted about two hours, at the end of which he was left, not like his master, but so weak and exhausted that he could not stand.

Don Quixote, however, who, as has been said, felt himself relieved and well, was eager to take his departure at once in quest of adventures, as it seemed to him that all the time he loitered there was a fraud upon the world and those in it who stood in need of his help and protection, all the more when he had the security and confidence his balsam afforded him; and so, urged by this impulse, he saddled Rocinante himself and put the pack-saddle on his squire's beast, whom likewise he helped to dress and mount the ass; after which he mounted his horse and turning to a corner of the inn he laid hold of a pike that stood there, to serve him by way of a lance.