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Great American Novel

Posted on 09/07/2001 11:24:11 AM PDT by Xenalyte

The Great American novel - voice of a generation.

Xena's Mom says Huck Finn is the definitive GAN, and no one'll ever top it. (What a reactionary that broad is.) I say there's a new novel for each generation.

I'm 32 (which I guess makes me a Gen-Xer), so what's the Great American Gen-X Novel? Or any other generation's? I'm an ex-English teacher, so bring it all on - I'm bound to a) have read it, b) have taught it or c) own it.

And if any of you says Gravity's Rainbow, I'll personally come over there and whomp you with a well-placed chakram to the back of the skull. That goes for Catcher in the Rye and Song of Solomon too. Blech.


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To: Pietro, motexva
Pietro - when you do get into Neuromancer (oh, boy!) remember that he wrote it BEFORE the advent of the internet. Talk about prescient - it'll blow your mind!

motexva - While I loved Cryptonomicon and Stephenson's first biggie Snowcrash, if you're talking about novels with a new idea per page, I highly recommend The Diamond Age. It's very dense, multithreaded, and a difficult read, but absolutely brilliant. Pay attention and even that vague ending does make sense - I'd make that one of the best books I read in the 90's if not THE best. If it didn't take place in China I'd have had it in running here...

61 posted on 09/07/2001 1:32:31 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: Xenalyte
For people now in their forties: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. Also, The Electric Kool Aid Acid Test.
62 posted on 09/07/2001 1:33:46 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: motexva
No Motex -what you recounted is the story for Confederacy, but it's kind of the opposite for Neon Bible. Toole's mother did her best to prevent it from being published - and managed to, til her death.
63 posted on 09/07/2001 1:36:43 PM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: Xenalyte
Hi:

How many GANs were there? I can't limit this to only one. It is impossible. But this was a delightful excercize for myself anyway.

Overall though, Samuel Clemens ranks highest I suppose. I personally enjoy his more political works more now. Huck.

To contribute to other consideration if I may, I like to break things down by decades so to speak, reflect on them, and then use such in rhetoric and writing. Of course, that might be the "decade" where I read the book as opposed to that in which it was published. For example:

Jim Harrison's "Legends of the Fall" is my favorite book of the last two decades of the 20th Century. It affected film as well by the making of the movie of the title name and also that of "Revenge" with Kevin Costner and Anthony Quinn(Madeleine Stowe as well).

Within this book then, the Novella "Revenge" is my choice. While at the same time, there are author's I read in time proximity along with Harrison: Thomas McGuane for one, McMurtry and Lonesome Dove was important. Elmer Kelton for another. In particular, Kelton wrote Great stories all related to the West(Texas) and he hasn't received the notice of McMurtry for example...undeservedly in my humble opinion. Here are 2 I recommend: The Time it Never Rained, The Good Old Boys. These books along with another 60's favorite comprise the spirit of independence, my sage brush rebellion attitude and longing for the open spaces, mountains and streams I guess: The Brave Cowboy by Edward Abbey and it's two sequels.

If I go back to the 70's and 60's however, my choices change radically to books published well before those decades. In the 70's it was Hemingway. Hard for me to choose which. "For Whom the Bell Tolls", "Islands in the Stream" or Perhaps "To Have and Have Not". In the 60's it was Ayn Rand: "Atlas Shrugged". Mom had me read those when I was 10 or so around 1960--but also in this decade I read thoroughly Lee's Lt.s, "None Dare Call It (Conspiracy or Treason)" I cannot recollect the publication dates--parental political influence). ALSO F-451, 1984 both were of import. Pat Frank's book "Tomorrow" was it? There was another for the 70s, "Love In the Ruins" By Walker Percy?

Huck was the book for me of the 50's. I believe I read the "Cain Mutiny" at this time as well, ie, late 50's. It remains a tremendous work. Or Jack London anything.

In the y2k decade, I certainly haven't read enough to push a button on one. Oddly enough, I have become enamored again with Rand. The Fountainhead is it thus far.

But that is just a way of looking at things. If I just had to pick 1, it would be Huck as being the most influential work in so many ways. For me personally, perhaps now in this decade I will return to Faulkner, and be 14 again so to speak. Here I might pick "A light in August" or "Wild Palms". I suppose I will Let EH go. After all, I just got back from playing McGuane and Hemingway in Key West, fly fishing the flats. It didn't work. I am still me....

Regards to you:

David Bell -- Dai --

"I could just remember how my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time." From William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying"(Character Addie Bundren).

Or something like, when it is all said and done, you die and they throw dirt in your face(Unknown source).

64 posted on 09/07/2001 1:38:40 PM PDT by daitex (dai@keepandbeararms.com)
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To: 7thson
In Cold Blood was not a novel. Capote called it a nonfiction novel; what we would probably call it today is literary nonfiction. And the murderers were not serial killers, as we understand the term today.
65 posted on 09/07/2001 1:42:20 PM PDT by mdwakeup
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To: Xenalyte
Yes, I thought the movie was good, but thought Johnny Depp was too short to be truly menacing. HST is quite an imposing figure.
66 posted on 09/07/2001 2:02:04 PM PDT by Dakmar
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To: Dakmar
My ONLY complaint about the movie was that there! Isn't Thompson a big ole guy? (I know that when Depp's reminiscing about four or five years back on the club scene, the camera wanders through a crowd and Depp points out himself, and that's HST there.)
67 posted on 09/07/2001 2:06:14 PM PDT by Xenalyte
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To: Constitution Day
Now that you mention it, "Intruder in the Dust" would also be a pretty cool screen name. Anyone who didn't know Faulkner would probably think I was referring to a cockroach, though.
68 posted on 09/07/2001 2:12:26 PM PDT by Alberta's Child
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To: B-Chan
Nope. Gotta be "Bored of the Rings" by the Harvard Lampoon.
69 posted on 09/07/2001 2:17:05 PM PDT by Hootowl
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To: Xenalyte
Right. Thompson is well over 6 foot tall, which completely changes the dynamics of messing with peoples heads. A guy the size of Depp would generally get his clock cleaned were he to try some of that in real life. Other than that, though, I thought they did an excellent job getting the atmosphere right. I think Depp is a very talented actor, he just wouldn't be my choice to play Thompson.
70 posted on 09/07/2001 2:17:05 PM PDT by Dakmar
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To: Eric in the Ozarks
Of course. For some reason I was thinking "Greatest English-language novel."

I'll have to give it some thought.

71 posted on 09/07/2001 2:18:20 PM PDT by B-Chan
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To: motexva
Indeed, I've read Cryptonomicon and enjoyed it immensely. For some reason Snow Crash just touched me more somehow, though. Not sure why.
72 posted on 09/07/2001 2:18:45 PM PDT by Dr. Frank fan
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To: wingnuts'nbolts
i liked the "winds of war" but i was plenty irritated to learn at the end that there would be a second volume, not yet written.
73 posted on 09/07/2001 2:35:19 PM PDT by liliana
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To: Hootowl
Oh, my Lord, I'm laughing just thinking about Frito.
74 posted on 09/07/2001 2:36:52 PM PDT by Xenalyte
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To: liliana
It was written and I think it was called War and Remembrance, or something like that. It continued with the lives of all those in the Winds of War and was definately not as good.
75 posted on 09/07/2001 2:44:22 PM PDT by wingnuts'nbolts
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To: untenured
While I think he's implying a rather broad definition, to me the great American novel would indicate several things. First, it would have to have an American theme. Secondly, it would have to speak to an individual generation. The Grapes of Wrath would speak to a different generation than Huck Finn, for example. Third, (IMHO) the book should have had some kind of significant social impact. It should have defined the way (some) Americans view their country or their generation. That would be my interpretation, in any event.
76 posted on 09/07/2001 2:48:41 PM PDT by Richard Kimball
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To: Billthedrill
Neuromancer is a little like plugging your brain into a wall socket.......

...and falling asleep due to boredom.

77 posted on 09/07/2001 2:49:25 PM PDT by tallhappy
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To: billorites
All the King's Men is another goodie. It's more directly based on Huey Long than Clinton, of course. Didn't you think, tho, that the Willie Stark character (and maybe Long himself, I don't know), were more idealistic than Clinton but equally wrongheaded?
78 posted on 09/07/2001 2:55:59 PM PDT by bleudevil
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To: Richard Kimball
Secondly, it would have to speak to an individual generation.

I like much of your definition, but here I would have to disagree. I believe there are certain themes that have always been part of the American experience. Thus novels that speak skillfully to those themes, even with different historical reference points that are less and less meaningful to subsequent generations, are IMHO "Great American Novels."

A GAN to me should be as meaningful and informative to people 100 years from now as it is today.

79 posted on 09/07/2001 3:05:16 PM PDT by untenured
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To: tallhappy
...and falling asleep due to boredom.

Yeah, it's not for everyone. The literate, yes, but not everyone.

80 posted on 09/07/2001 3:07:14 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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