John Steinbeck has got into specially equipped truck, has put near himself a dog, and has gone to a travel.
At some point he felt that he needed to rest. He sees the informing plate. It says: cafe-library.
Some young reader was coming out of the library with ten books in his hands. Steinbeck tells him: 'I'm John Steinbeck. And this is my dog...'.
- With pleasure, Mr. Steinbeck, I will watch your dog during you will visit cafe-library.
John Steinbeck has come into cafe library, has sat down for a little table at which John Smith, Jack London, Maxim Gorky and Jerome Salinger sat.
Writers have greeted each other, and John Smith has continued his story:
- Stephan Batory has given to me the rank of the captain. But would be inexact to see in me only the serviceman, or only the "first American" who has set foot on May 14, 1607 on the American land. I am the author of a number of books, for example: "A true relation of such occurrences and accidents of noate as hath hapned in Virginia " (1608), "A description of New England" (1612), "The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England, and the Summer isles: with the names of the Adventurers, Planters, and Governours from their first beginning" in six parts (1624), "A Sea Grammar" (1627), "The true travels, adventures, and observations of Captaine John Smith, in Europe, Asia, Affrica, and America from Anno Domini 1593 to 1629.".
I have made the first map of Virginia!
- "The Catcher in the Rye" - J. D. Salinger has reported, - is the classical novel which is originally published for adults, become popular among teenage readers for his themes of teenage melancholy and alienation. The main character of the novel the Holden Caulfield became a symbol of a teenage revolt. Roman also considers difficult questions of innocence, identity, accessory, loss and communication. (In translations into other languages translators look for versions of the name - ""Hunter", "trustee", "tutor" (etc.) on the grain field").
The novel has been included in the list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923 and has been called one of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. In 2003 he has been specified on the BBC's survey The Big Read. So the Wikipedia writes!
- I was born in the English province of Lincolnshire, - John Smith has continued his memoirs, - in family of the not rich farmers George and Alice Smith. I combined the help to the father with training at grammatical school where studied reading, the letter, arithmetics and Latin. The famous seafarer Francis Drake was my ideal, and I have decided to become a seaman. After the death of the father I at sixteen-year age in suite of Lord Willoughby have gone to France, and from there have got to the Netherlands and was at war for independence of this kingdom. Having come back home, I have constructed to myself in the wood belonging to Lord Willoughby, the tent from branches of trees and lived there in a solitude, reading books on history, military science and policy.
- Who was Holden Caulfield's ideal, Mr. Salinger?
- Holden Caulfield is a teenager. At sixteen, he was expelled from Preparatory Academy, an exclusive boarding school, due to poor work. He likes the record "Little Shirley Beans".
- How I leaved school? - Maxim Gorky took part in the conversation. - Forced? Willingly? Working in an icon-painting workshop, at the age of about thirteen years, I read to her workers aloud literary works. And suddenly I felt that I know and saw more than each of those adults who listened to me: I worked at different jobs, read a lot, traveled a lot.
Who was my ideal?
One biographers write nothing on this subject. I.M. Nefedova has decided to speak on this subject: "He [Maxim Gorky] has got acquainted with the writer N.E. Karonin-Petropavlovsky. By this time Alexey had had an idea of the real writer as "the severe herald of the truth" with "an indestructible force of resistance to enemies of justice". Karonin quite answered this representation. Many years he spent in prison and exile, in his works he acted as a defender of poor men, who, despite the oppression and poverty, retained their dignity, mind, spiritual wealth.
The high ideal of the identity of the writer embodied in Karonin became, in the future, the Gorky's ideal. Karonin spoke about the Russian literature, has awakened interest in vagrants in Alexey (Gorky has devoted them a number of the first stories). Karonin was seriously ill, semi-poor, just returned from exile. He didn't complain of the destiny, lived "absorbed by search "the truths - justice"".
Gorky has skeptically smiled:
- Perhaps, not the specific person, but the generalized image of the cultural self-sufficient person was my ideal. If I in youth had a chance to read about John Smith, then why John Smith couldn't become my ideal: brave traveler, hardworking writer, geographer? To participation in military operations, I am, however, not inclined ... More a culture and a travels attract me. And also - a charity activity.
On the advice of the familiar grammar-school boy in 1884 at sixteen-year age I have gone to Kazan - the university there. But I had no possibility to study: no money to live. I 'passed university education' on piers, in doss houses, in student illegal communities ...
- I left one school forcedly: the stepfather was ruined and we have moved, - Jack London has remembered. - Thirteen years I have graduated from elementary school. In a class I was considered as the expert on history. Have suggested to deliver a speech at a final ceremony to me - undoubtedly, for this reason. But there was no dress - there was no decent suit, I couldn't even be on a celebration. About a high school, there was nothing to think - an employment of my stepfather became more and more random. I thought that my spiritual birth happened at the moment when I stopped near the door of a wooden building of the free library, keeping a hat in my hands, not believing my eyes. That's what my biographer, Irving Stone, wrote.
Approximately in sixteen years I have bought for the money, borrowed from the nanny, the "Rezzl Dezzl" sloop ("Junket") and became the oyster pirate.
To the amazement, I have found out that, having bought "Razzle-Dazzle", I have received in addition and "queen" of oyster pirates. Mamie was a girlfriend of the previous owner of the sloop - French Frank. But when I was on "Rezzl Dezzl" to agree about purchase, she, having looked in my face, have fallen in love. She was sixteen years old. She was pretty, capricious little girl without a sort, without tribe. She was kind and warm. In a small cabin of "Razzle-Dazzle" she created for me the real house - the first in life warm home. I was the youngest of the "pirates", there were no women on other ships, and I was forced not only to defend my right to leave my girlfriend on the sloop with my fists, but even almost died at the hands of the jealous French Frank.
- Some of my biographers believe that about my first close contact with a woman I have written in the short story "Once in the Fall", - Maxim Gorky has supported a subject. - It was the casual meeting with the unfamiliar girl, in the cold fall, on the river bank.
- Holden pictures himself as the sole guardian of thousands of children playing in a huge rye field on the edge of a cliff. His job is to catch the children if, in their abandon, they come close to falling off the brink; to be, in effect, the "catcher in the rye". Because of this misinterpretation, Holden believes that to be the "catcher in the rye" means to save children from losing their innocence, - Salinger has continued. - It is one of interpretation.
Participants of a conversation politely looked at Salinger.
- Following an unpromising visit to Ernie's Nightclub in Greenwich Village, Holden becomes preoccupied with his internal angst and agrees to have a prostitute named Sunny visit his room, - Salinger has continued. - His attitude toward the girl changes the minute she enters the room; she seems about the same age as him. Holden becomes uncomfortable with the situation, and when he tells her all he wants to do is talk, she becomes annoyed and leaves. Even though he still paid her the right amount for her time, she returns with her pimp Maurice and demands more money. Holden insults Maurice, and after Sunny takes the money from Holden's wallet, Maurice punches him in the stomach and leaves with Sunny. It also one of versions of a plot.
- Modern times, misters have now come! - John Steinbeck has added. - AIDS and other diseases. We will remember an unpleasant biographic detail of dear Guy de Maupassant. So I believe useful to mention wisdom of ancient civilizations! "At the end of 1882, at the age of 13 years, Mohandas at insistance of the father has married the coeval Kasturba that for India was usual age of marriage". Mahatma Gandhi's biographer with doubt estimates advantage of so early marriages. As for sex in marriage, at least, for reasons of safety and on moral arguments such option is the most preferable.
- When I was eighteen years old, - John Smith has continued the memoirs, - I was employed at a commercial Mediterranean ship. I have come on service to the Austrian army and have gone for the war with the Ottoman Empire. I was awarded by the king of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth Stephan Batory - I have received a military rank of the captain. So if you have a such a desire, you can consider me the member of szlachta of the Rzeczpospolita. Did you know, gentlemen, that Stephen Bathory established in 1578, instead of the Royal court, as the highest judicial authority the szlachta tribunals, forming by elections? It has reminded me the English judicial organisation - juries. To attract to himself the Zaporozhian Cossacks, Stephan Batory recognized them by regular army (the Zaporozhian Host) and has assigned lands to the rich Cossacks.
You ask: why the Don Cossacks were positive to me. Of course, because I was a Christian. So because I was serviceman of Stephen Batory.
But I have a little outstripped events.
In 1602 I have been wounded in fight and captured by the opponent. Me have sold in slavery to the notable Turk in Constantinople. This Turk has presented me to the bride. Then I was passed from hand to hand, and in the end I was, as one of my biographers writes, on a large agricultural farm, on the territory near modern Rostov-on-Don. I could not bear my slave position, humiliation and beatings from the owner. I killed the owner and escaped to a steppe on a horse, having taken with myself food and clothes. So I have appeared at the territory of the Don Cossack Host.
You ask me: is it true, that I became the Don Cossack. In some cases for reception in Cossacks was a separate procedure. And in some - a residents of the Cossack settlement were a Cossacks. There was a legend that I was elected at position of the ataman.
Anyway, the name of Stephen Bathory and history of my life have provided me a benevolent attitude at the territory of the Don Cossack Host. So if you have a such a big desire, misters, you can consider me the Don Cossack. In 1582 Yermak Timofeyevich has gone towards the Far East - to the East. At such situation for me quite natural was to go in the western direction.
Acquaintance to the organization of life of Cossacks was useful for me. As A.Yu. Gusarov writes in the book "Great Americans. 100 outstanding stories and destinies" "at the organization of system of strengthenings of new American colonies he [John Smith] used the principles of defense of the Cossack villages, and the first wooden constructions of the American colonists were similar the Russian log huts".
Through the southern Russian lands and the territory of Lithuania I have reached Germany, then have gone to France, Spain and Morocco, and in the winter of 1604/05 have returned to Britain. As you already heard, on May 14, 1607 I have set foot on the American land.
- My father told me a family story about the acquaintance with the captain of the army of Stephen Bathory. Because of remoteness of events information was a very not clear, - Salinger has noticed. Also he have continued:
- You, dear John Smith, were "catched" - after your wound. As for my novel, "falling off the cliff could be a progression into the adult world ... Phoebe and Holden exchange roles as the "catcher" and the "fallen"; he gives her his hunting hat, the catcher's symbol, and becomes the fallen as Phoebe becomes the catcher". - There is also such interpretation.
But I have run a little forward.
Losing hope of finding belonging or companionship in the city, Holden impulsively decides that he will head out west and live a reclusive lifestyle as a gas station attendant. He decides to see Phoebe [the sister] at lunchtime to explain his plan and say farewell. While visiting Phoebe's school , Holden becomes obsessed with graffiti containing the word "..." [the slang name of sexual intercourse], and and becomes distressed by the thought of children learning the word's meaning. Holden upsets Phoebe. Seeing that she is upset, Holden decides not to leave, eventually. He tries to cheer her up. They eventually reach the zoo's carousel, where Phoebe reconciles with Holden after he buys her a ticket. Holden is finally filled with happiness and joy at the sight of Phoebe riding in the rain.
It was evident from the faces of Jack London and Maxim Gorky that they were going to tell about their colossal travels and their difficult, but glorious, literary achievements.
John Steinbeck didn't forget about the dog. Having politely said goodbye, he left the cafe-library.
At an exit he was kindly waited by the reader. The dog was wagging a tail.
John Steinbeck has thanked the reader and has got into the specially equipped truck. The trip has continued.
There was a radio information: ""The Catcher in the Rye" "has been found" at least than at three people, who having committed loud crimes. Mark David Chapman was obsessed with the book - he has killed in 1980 John Lennon. John Hinckley trying to shoot the president Ronald Reagan in 1981. Robert John Bardo has killed the actress Rebecca Schaeffer in 1989".
"It is necessary to write the letter to Adlai Stevenson", - Steinbeck has thought. - "And what to write?"
He has begun to think over a text of a letter.
"Not really I would like to be a such Holden Caulfield ..." - the thought has come. - "It is better to be without a higher education - to be Jack London, Maxim Gorky ...". "Eventually, it isn't bad to be John Steinbeck".
Radio said: "John Steinbeck awarded the Nobel prize."
The travel continued ...
August 11, 2018 11:00
Translation from Russian into English: August 12, 2018 12:45.
Владимир Владимирович Залесский 'Сказка о тьюторах и учениках'.