Franny and Zooey holds inside it a most exciting dialogues, and surprisingly what is officially a dialogue, is actually a monologue, and a wonderful one it’s. When the System and its counter Movement were just born, Salinger already noticed its inner inconsistencies and dogmatic nature, which at the end made the Movement (and the 60s) eat themselves up and vomit. Here’s a part of it, a teaser and a bit of spoiler:

“… I hate the kind of blanket attack you’re making on it. I agree with you about ninety-eight per cent on the issue. But the other two per cent scares me half to death. I had one professor when I was in college - just one, I’ll grant you, but he was a big, big one - who just doesn’t fit in with anything you’ve been talking about. He wasn’t Epictetus. But he was no egomaniac, he was no faculty charm boy. He was a great and modest scholar. And what’s more, I don’t think I ever heard him say anything, either in or out of the classroom, that didn’t seem to me to have a little bit of real wisdom in it - and sometimes a lot of it. What’ll happen to him when you start your revolution? I can’t bear to think about it - let’s change the goddam subject. These other people you’ve been ranting about are something else again. This Professor Trupper. And those other two goons you were telling me about last night - Manlius, and the other one. I’ve had them by the dozens, and so has everybody else, and I agree they’re not harmless. They’re lethal as hell, as a matter of fact. God almighty. They make everything they touch turn academic and useless. Or - worse - cultish. To my mind, they’re mostly to blame for the mob of ignorant oafs with diplomas that are turned loose on the country every June… But what I don’t like - and what I don’t think either Seymour or Buddy would like, either, as a matter of fact - is the way you talk about all these people. I mean you don’t just despise what they represent - you despise them. It’s too damn personal, Franny. I mean it. You get a real little homicidal glint in your eye when you talk about this Trupper, for instance. All this business about his going to the men’s room to muss his hair before he comes in to class. All that. He probably does - it goes with everything else you’ve told me about him. I’m not saying it doesn’t. But it’s none of your business, buddy, what he does with his hair…. If you’re going to go to war against the System, just do your shotting like a nice, intelligent girl - because the enemy’s there, and not because you don’t like his hairdo or his goddam necktie.”

Links:
Franny and Zooey @ Wikipedia
Review by John Updike (1961)