Catcher in the Rye is a dreadfully banal and blasphemous book that forces the reader inside the head of a teenage loser as he descends lower into popular culture oblivion. We might even say that the book has shaped or even defined pop culture and popularity itself. Holden Caulfield was a popular person at his prep school in every modern way – i.e., he smoked, he drank, he cursed, he used Christ’s name in vain fluently, he mingled comfortably with alpha males and attractive girls, he had wealthy, indifferent parents and a suave older brother…