absolute nobody

Last Wednesday J.D.Salinger (91) passed away and I decided to finally give The Catcherthe re-read I was planning to. I have also rediscovered this wonderful quote from "Franny and Zooey":

"I'm sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody."

Most people are afraid to live with themselves as absolute nobodies. That is why they try so hard to belong somewhere, to be recognized, appreciated, approved, accepted etc. That is why they end up "conditioned to accept everybody else's values" and giving themselves away.

And I say that I have rediscovered it, because at the time when I actually read "Franny and Zooey" I must have been too young to understand and hence must have overseen it. Or I must have thought it was just some pretentious talk coming from a pretentious character of a pretentious book.

But now I see things in a different light. And it is through the power of books that I understood that being an absolute nobody need not have negative connotations. Books like The Catcher, that have absolute nobodies as protagonists - characters that we all eventually come to love and admire despite (or maybe because of?) their inability or unwillingness to adapt. Being an absolute nobody actually means being authentic. And it does take a lot of courage to not be anybody (else).

P.S.: And I believe it's the word "absolute" that makes the whole concept so intriguing: You see, being an "absolute" (not "relative"!) nobody, means by definition that a person's condition cannot be judged by or measured against common standards.