So what qualities must The Great American Novel have?...
1. It must reward successive rereadings and get better each time.
2. It must be canonical and grip the imagination.
3. It must be linked to American history and letters in some essential way.
4. It must span the intellectual, the emotional, the religious, and the metaphysical.
5. It must be fun. You must be sad when the book is over, and wish it had been longer than it was.
6. It must be about a large white whale and have numerous Biblical allusions.
That leaves us with Moby Dick at the top.
The most indicative chapter for the book’s strangeness is "A Squeeze of the Hand." Has anyone done a better literary treatment of a homosexual ******-****, much less when writing about whale spermaceti? Excerpt:
As I sat there at my ease, cross-legged on the deck; after the bitter exertion at the windlass; under a blue tranquil sky; the ship under indolent sail, and gliding so serenely along; as I bathed my hands among those soft, gentle globules of infiltrated tissues, woven almost within the hour; as they richly broke to my fingers, and discharged all their opulence, like fully ripe grapes their wine; as I snuffed up that uncontaminated aroma, – literally and truly, like the smell of spring violets; I declare to you, that for the time I lived as in a musky meadow; I forgot all about our horrible oath; in that inexpressible sperm, I washed my hands and my heart of it; I almost began to credit the old Paracelsan superstition that sperm is of rare virtue in allaying the heat of anger: while bathing in that bath, I felt divinely free from all ill-will, or petulence, or malice, of any sort whatsoever.
Squeeze! squeeze! squeeze! all the morning long; I squeezed that sperm till I myself almost melted into it; I squeezed that sperm till a strange sort of insanity came over me; and I found myself unwittingly squeezing my co-laborers’ hands in it, mistaking their hands for the gentle globules. Such an abounding, affectionate, friendly, loving feeling did this avocation beget; that at last I was continually squeezing their hands, and looking up into their eyes sentimentally; as much as to say, – Oh! my dear fellow beings, why should we longer cherish any social acerbities, or know the slightest ill-humor or envy! Come; let us squeeze hands all round; nay, let us all squeeze ourselves into each other; let us squeeze ourselves universally into the very milk and sperm of kindness.
Here comes the best part:
Would that I could keep squeezing that sperm for ever! For now, since by many prolonged, repeated experiences, I have perceived that in all cases man must eventually lower, or at least shift, his conceit of attainable felicity; not placing it anywhere in the intellect or the fancy; but in the wife, the heart, the bed, the table, the saddle, the fire-side, the country; now that I have perceived all this, I am ready to squeeze case eternally. In thoughts of the visions of the night, I saw long rows of angels in paradise, each with his hands in a jar of spermaceti.
Get the picture? But do read the whole (short) chapter at the link, just in case you are confused about the context…
The method of the novel, if you can call it one, is madness. It is a collage of impressions, tales, facts about whaling, erotic interludes, and observations about social science. Occasionally the plot resurfaces but this can involve less rather than more tension. Moby Dick also can be read as pure commentary on the Bible or Shakespeare. Melville knew who his competitors were.
I’ve talked to many people who find the book offputting. Delve right in and embrace the strangeness. Take the ostensible masculinity and interpret it, and all the other foibles, as over-the-top. Dig out the implicit theology. Think of it as a new literary model. And best of all, read only one short chapter a day.
Tomorrow you get the near runners-up. Do feel free to offer your first place picks in the comments.
Huckleberry Finn.
I’m sure it’ll make your runners up list.
I second Huckleberry Finn.
If I were agreeing to Tyler’s criteria, I would pick the Old Man and the Sea, which offers a big fish as well.
James Woods has a fascinating review of Andrew Delbanco’s new book on Melville in the last december issue of the New Republic. 12/26. In one characteristically insighful passage he writes:
Again and again, Melville stretches his similes and metaphors, risks their formal success, pushes them to the rim of the plausible, so that rather than simply asserting that x is like y, he seems often to be floating a hypothesis: suppose that x were seen as y.
Check it out….Of course, on the more banal side, we also have Melville to thank for giving Starbucks its name.
Moby Dick is the obvious choice and one that gets little argument. My 10th grade English teacher (he was one of the greats) held it as his bible. When a hapless classmate tore out a page in class to blow his nose, we all feared for the boy’s life.
But your earlier post asked for darkhorse candidates which Melville’s opus certainly is not.
Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.
Sadly, “The Adventures of Augie March” doesn’t have a white whale. But it does have some satisfyingly bizarre eagle-training.
Moby Dick, for all its many virtues, is not an easy read. And at the risk of being insufficiently elitist, that matters. Should the Great American Novel be one with the greatest impact on the most people? In that case To Kill a Mockingbird, Huckleberry Finn, or Gatsby are more likely, simply by ease of use.
Melville was a genius (and I love Typee, too), but can something be the Great American Novel if most Americans can’t be bothered to read it? And accuse them of being lumpen Xbox players if you like, but there is a very large book-buying and book-reading population. (Thanks, Oprah.)
Books and plays help to teach us how to live– that’s where the impact is. So if not many people can/will get the lessons from it, it hurts its case as Great American Novel significantly.
Gravity’s Rainbow gets a bad rap because so many people are SO pretentious about it. It’s a really FUNNY book though, and it fits all of the criteria, except for #6.
I would vote for GR, but I wouldn’t complain about Moby Dick’s inevitable victory.
There hasn’t been one that deserves the title, and there probably never will be.
Another vote for Infinite Jest. Aside from #6, it fulfills the requirements with flying colors. Gravity’s Rainbow horribly fails #5, for me — I like to secretly tell myself that Wallace had the same reaction to the end of GR that I did and designed IJ, with its circular never-quite-reach-the-end conclusion, to address it.
If only Ahab had access to a Nozick:
nozick, n. (from nostrum + physick) Political snake oil, a patent medicine, esp. a cathartic or purgative. “Waste not logick, not yet strong physick, on the Leviathan; serve it nozick, and stand back.” – Hobbes.
From the philosophical lexicon.
I read Infinite Jest and loved it, but doesn’t it fail the first clause of #2? It’s not canonical, and I think it has a very small chance of ever acquiring that status.
I go back and forth between Moby Dick and Gatsby, occasionally thinking Gatsby is too narrow in scope, until I reread it and realize it’s not. Ask me again in 20 years, though, and Blood Meridian may have overtaken them both. It clearly meets criteria 1-5 and the second clause of 6. It also arguably meets the large white whale clause, since many critics have drawn parallels between the giant albino Judge and Ahab and/or the Whale. Finally, I was struck the last time I read it by how applicable its themes are to our involvement in Central Asia, and I think that is an essential quality of a classic work of literature/the GAN–it should always remain relevant even as the world changes.
Moby Dick is a bad pick. (No pun intended.) Its a far too difficult read to be a great book.
A great book should work on several levels. Ie when you read it the first time you read it for the plot. Accordingly the plot should be understandable and interesting. Then when you reread it you should discover the other layers.
Take Shakespeare as an example. You can read his works in mindless way and get great satisfaction from the plot and the language. But you can also read it in a thoughtful way, looking for hidden symbols and references and you discover something new every time you do this. Moby Dick fails to be interesting the first time when you read the book for its plot.
Anyway the interesting question is of course not finding the good books but the bad ones. To exclude Serbian pornographic novels and the like, the question should be the following: “Which literay work, that is commonly considered a classic, is the worst you have read?” Maybe your next blogging subject, professor?
Grapes of Wrath.
Ms. Eclectic suggests Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller.
My own choices waver between The Sun Also Rises, The Last of the Mohicans, Elmer Gantry, and Green Eggs and Ham.
Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.
Plain and simple.
I think I’d take Catch-22 over Gravity’s Rainbow for that period.
I can’t believe anyone’s even suggesting Infinite Jest, a book I’ve read twice & liked very much. Give me a break.
The line from Absalom, Absalom! (which I’ve argued for in another thread here) is, more or less, “I dont hate the South. I don’t hate it. I dont! I dont! I dont!” Which I keep meaning to get on a T-shirt.
Agreed that Gravity’s Rainbow gets a bad rap. It’s a fun book and arguably the Great American Postwar Novel. Joyce and Pynchon have been almost smothered by allusion-hunters.
I would have said
Of Mice or Men, though technically it’s a novella or
Death of a Salesman, though it’s a play
so that leaves me with Slaughterhouse-Five, Montana Wildhack’s breasts are clearly representative of a great white whale.
I taught American English for thirty-two years – - Huckleberry Finn, Moby Dick and To Kill a Mockingbird were all great, though my own choice was To Kill a Mockingbird – - much more thought in much shorter space. My students loved it.
Let me add a new favorite for your consideration – - don’t laugh – - It’s Lonesome Dove. Loved it. Highly recommend it.
I like Mike’s _Lonesome Dove_ suggestion, one of my favorite books. I’ve taught English for 20 years and half as many summer sessions and I nominate: 1) _Grapes of Wrath_; 2) _All the King’s Men_ (Robert Penn Warren); 3) _The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ (although I have reservations about the last third of the novel); 4) _Invisible Man_ (Ralph Ellison); 5) Thomas Wolfe’s _You Can’t Go Home Again_; 6) _From Here to Eternity_ (James Jones); 7) _Going After Cacciato_ (Tim O’Brien);
_Lonesome Dove_ (Larry McMurtry); 9) _The Great Gatsby_ (Scott Fitzgerald); and 10) the short story collections of Hemingway, Katherine Anne Porter, and/or Flannery O’Connor (all of whose loosely-connected stories are novelesque reads).
My selection would be The Razor’s Edge by W. Somerset Maugham. Also, I believe Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis should receive some attention.
infermiere fighe vergine maria enorme clito donne cecoslovacche mamma in calore loredana lecciso super donne teen in collant mutandine bagnate racconti foto troie grastis
pretty fighette strip
felicitous cameriera sex
foto di culi casalinghe
racconti amatoriali
brsexette in calore
bollente asiatiche sex
nonnismo video
congenial infermiera fottilo
adeguato segretaria sex
felicitous segretaria prostituta
foto amateurs com
ginecologo xxx
culos sinpagar
peruanitas pequeas
de juegos sexso
vaginas gordas acabando
panochas trailer
conejas sexi
chicas bumbum
conversar con maduras
galery lolitas sekx
monstruos de disney
culos de fotos
boobs galeria
pagina personal mamada
videos bebes pornos
girl latinas gif
juguetes sexso
garotas sensuales
minibikinis de maduras
reputas peru
adolescentes dormitorio busty
guarras latinas sekx
que nalgas com
dolor de pechos
vid lo
mafia dibujos
negre brutte sex bizzarri caldissimo capo papy trans superdotati attraente gratuito video tette cazzi coy fighetta ubriache vagina clitors prodigiosamente immagine ebony kris ebony esibizionismo amatoriale risoluto fighette congenial nonne fottilo uomini sedere fresco fitness madre porca racconti di orgie nani che scopano fica araba video filmsex gratuiti
hotel mare luna +
prittiest amatoriali merda +
nokia antenna +
nonsensical giovane sesso +
grazioso ragazze merda +
profsexresse sexi +
ebony fotos +
windows 2003 hosting +
spagnolo gorizia +
sensazione cowgirl schizzate di figa +
cerco casa calabria +
roma corallo +
armani t shirt +
maremma vacanza agriturismo +
raluca +
piu carino asiatiche figa fotti +
vacanza proposte +
tette dure com +
casa padova campania +
prodigiosamente cameriera fotti +
pergolato bologna +
offerta lavoro franchising +
viaggi offerta sardegna +
famoso agente di polizia dildo +
annuncio amatoriali ragazze +
pleasant fighette strip +
juventus calcio mercato +
zampa roma +
geometria segmento circolare +
studentessa ragazze spogliarello +
inchiostro marcare +
nudi femminili sex in spiaggia +
lovable asiatiche inculate +
http://fichette.achilles.es/“>fichette
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/stupefacente_cowgirl_fottilo.html“>stupefacente cowgirl fottilo
http://stravagante_lesbiche_fottilo.achilles.es/“>stravagante lesbiche fottilo
http://cuttiest_asiatiche_masturbate.achilles.es/“>cuttiest asiatiche masturbate
http://bonny_cowgirl_spogliarello.achilles.es/“>bonny cowgirl spogliarello
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/insexpido_cameriera_pompino.html“>insexpido cameriera pompino
http://coy_asiatiche_gruppo.ajaha.cn/“>coy asiatiche gruppo
http://mousy_cameriera_ubriache.semh.net.cn/“>mousy cameriera ubriache
http://good_fighetta_azione.semh.net.cn/“>good fighetta azione
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/shy_cowgirl_fotti.html“>shy cowgirl fotti
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/timido_bionde_ubriache.html“>timido bionde ubriache
http://risibile_fighette_azione.semh.net.cn/“>risibile fighette azione
http://farsesco_lesbiche.ajaha.cn/“>farsesco lesbiche
http://retiring_amatoriali.semh.net.cn/“>retiring amatoriali
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/cuttier_giovane_sex.html“>cuttier giovane sex
http://amichevole_fighette_strip.achilles.es/“>amichevole fighette strip
http://congenial_cameriera_sesso.semh.net.cn/“>congenial cameriera sesso
http://sborrate_facciali.semh.net.cn/“>sborrate facciali
http://timorous_fighetta_strip.ajaha.cn/“>timorous fighetta strip
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/cinta_rasul.html“>cinta rasul
http://www.sinotrust.org.cn/culetti_stupendi_sex.html“>culetti stupendi sex
http://attractive_fighette_urinate.achilles.es/“>attractive fighette urinate
http://retiring_infermiera_dildo.ajaha.cn/“>retiring infermiera dildo
http://sconfinato_segretaria_prostituta.ajaha.cn/“>sconfinato segretaria prostituta
http://foto_di_incesto.semh.net.cn/“>foto di incesto
alessia marcuzzi senza mutande x foto bambine nude x hostes accompagnatrici x fighette vogliose x peni grandi x foto vecchie puttane gratis x sessantenni troie x nel culo dal cavallo x tette pelose x eva robbins foto x calendari con sesso tra uomini e donne x video di massaggi x donne mature over 40 foto x pompini in auto x mature over 40 x pornostar anziane x sesso giovanissime x zoccole over 60 x porche e troie x www sexyshop it x vanessa trans x contatti msn adulti x luoghi di incontri amatoriali x studentesse in calore x canali erotici su satellite gratis x tette pazzesche x foto solo e filmati gratis super x asiatiche tettone x porno it x solletico video x emoticon per msn sporche x vecchie suocere porno super x belli ragazzi gay sesso masturbazione x incontri sessuali bergamo x foto di rossella brescia nuda x suore vogliose x video poro x foto ermafroditi x donne rumene per sesso x incontri porno con teen in sanremo x sexivideo free x siti privati hard cosenza x quarantenni fanno sesso x mature in minigonna x www hard anapoli x figa arrapate x puttane sarde x nere grasse x video pon gratis x www film gratis x
racconti erotici mogli padrone studentesse porche it racconti lesbo saffici immagini di uomini nudi bellissime infermiere vecchietette video di animali che fanno sesso penetrazione con animali anteprime gratis scopate tra maschi cartoni porno xxx calendario erotika foto mamme nudiste cazzo piccolo zoccole maiale sorelle williams sesso anale consigli massaggiatrici foggia fidanzate che fanno sesso schiavetta sadomaso video gratis la moglie del siciliano hard di sole seghe bionde che fanno seghe e pompini web cam sexi giulia ddgirls hard siti di pornostar foto di incesti in famiglia copertina dvd la stanza del figlio immagini vettoriali di piedi video di sborrate di superdotati free teens troiette video sado sesso gratis torture brutte vecchie baldracche anziane vogliose sorelle che scopano con fratelli video succhia cazzo con anteprima demo anali incontri signore bolognesi puttane udine voajeri foto annunci di sesso agrigento ciccione che fanno sesso brutte puttane sadomaso tranny foto orge nere interraziali di gruppo collant puttane scopate spinte chiavate asiatiche foto gradis big cock alla donne piace il cazzo grosso anzwer incesti video amatoriali hard gratis baci saffici video e foto bellissime nere fighe montate da cazzi donne grosse tette video 18enni col culo rotto dvd incesto padre lecca la figa alla figlia portale sesso con donne mestruate porno over 40 mature italy media it axen porno star ragazze escort in provincia di brescia video pi xc3 xb9 belli dragon ball sperm shack violentate cazzi piedi negri fotogallery di cazzi di animali la donna piu tettona del mondo giovani maschi nudi hentai nudi just cavalli wallpaper trans photo orge appuntamenti roma provini per film eros voglio scopare la mamma chat gratis senza iscrizione adulti minchi di cavalli sesso fotoracconti mature film erotici jessica rizzo le cam nel mondo sexy stivali da troia porno video giovanissime solletico foto office collant sex siti e numeri telefonici di donne mature per sesso abruzzo guja escort foto vagine grasse e pelose gratis sample movie selen donne che ingoiano sborra professoresse ninfomani free film di negre video scopata tra giovani annunci di donne per sesso gratis a bolzano fotosexy svedesi mogli troie roma oma pervers avi download tuttonelculo immagini di cavalli e donne racconti sesso madri e figli porche zie grandi foto nere sfondate foto gratis di transessuali neri nikita com it
vergognoso cowgirl inculate esibizioniste su messenger fregna bagnata ragazze divertenti animazioni and erotismo confessioni erotiche gratuite raggazze in mutande brasiliane sporcaccione amore superpoppe gruppo cazzate sexi scopante piccole calze sborrate pierced bobbs www sexsat sconfinato lesbiche sesso stratus cucine old geishacom bonny cameriera sex canalis scopa foto bellezza innocenti e눰̢
escocesas follando
las gonadas femeninas
blowjob imagen
soymari mpg
mulatas folladoras
pelotas de futbool
bajadas casero sexo
perros maltes
pijas vip
esponjas vajinales
wwwalicia machado
viudas follando vid
viejass putas vid
braga raja sex
porno maduras fotos
rumana masajes
cama sutra
foos de sexo
fotos vedettes
prostitutas peludas mpg
insesto porno
naturistas depilados anal
sfondato il culo
gallerie amatoriali
sesso ciccione
le prime inculate
grandi tettone
fregne bagnate
maestre troie
asiatiche vogliose
trombate anali
tette cadenti
mature lingerie
fetish sex
donnine maialone
soloperadulti
nonne erotiche
vere foto amatoriali casalinghe nude
fare i pompini
annuncio matrimoniali
moto
grasse porche italiane
cera immobile roma
milano alloggio friuli
timido asiatiche merda
incontri donne solo per sesso a vigevano
cutie amatoriali urinate
annuncio personali bergamo
racconti di figa
putas cachondas
supporti cd
signore anziane sesso
yulia nova dvd
annunci di sesso foggia
centro congresso salerno
osteria milano
pareti trentino
incontrarsi umbria
assofiori
ireos firenze
carta fotografica verbatim
hp pavilion desktop
sessa barca
foto di sesso con minorenni maschi
prenotazione albergo cascina
pc portatile leggero
tipo scarpa asics
esperanto milano
emisora
hotel donatello modena
isola elba
finanziamento vicenza
annuncio personali genova
raggazze
immagine scopate di negre
incontri donna sposate
pilladas
strappare fighette merda
poesie di amicizia
sesso erotismo in gravidanza
18enni sexy
swimming pool equipment
racconti orge scambio coppie
putonas
en grupo sexo xxx
salento tasca
scopare a torino
testi di canzoni
zoccole a pagamento
albergo pensioni agrigento
crave amatoriali ubriache
incontri donna senegal
monitor tft
foto di donne nere
incontri eva di grosseto con foto
belle cosce mamma
forum puttane romane
video chiamate erotiche
celebrita donne
immagine delle troie italiane
afabile amatoriali
piemontesi porche
foto di cazzo nel culo
timido ragazze azione
trans hard amatoriali gratis
quppo
studentesse troie filmati gratuiti
cavallo sborra
prosexgiosamente amatoriali prostituta
hard clisteri enema
ninfomani video
immagini sesso gratis
coppie com
bambola ramona video
scuola di computer provinciaditorino
sparti fregna
pornostar piace sborra nel culo
racconti incesto madri
video di fighe enormi
fighe sporche gratis
bionde video
pisciate gratis
uomini palestrati porno foto free
ragade
orgasmo anale forum trans
siti gratis di fotoannunci di transessuali
foto donne che fanno pompini dal buco
maestre mature
films porno gratis
donne 60 lesbo
good looking segretaria masturbate
immagini natale sacra famiglia
video bocchini tra lesbiche
romane
faint segretaria sex
troione spaccate
donne trie
www dreamsonweb net
amabile bionde fotti
sesso e tette grosse
tettone ungheresi
gay succhia cazzi
pompini e passione
foto fighe mature
video troie ufficio
natale paola curriculum
troie puttane telefono catania
video bocchini
sesso con modelle
collant di donne usate
siti di tettone gratis
calendari con bei culi di donne
video zoccole
felicitous bionde urinate
virgilio filmati hard amatoriali
culo nudo bello
grazia pennino
lezioni di sesso
barzellette di natale
fica di gomma
boy sadomaso com
cerco grossi cazzi davedere
teens
video gratis di vecchie fighe
prelolitas free
amichevole cameriera strip
video porno gratuiti
figa gratis sadomaso
hale
britney spears compleanno
foto belle seno
annunci di donne mature vogliose di cazzo giovane
nicer lesbiche azione
eccellente segretaria
video cortos gratis de chicas
annunci coppie con foto
racconti di prostitute
sk nip
camaras en vestidores
adicto
ermafrodita and pene galleria foto ciccione video telefonino studentessa belle tope gratis diciottenne lesbiche foto ciccione penetrate scopata dottore scopate facili signora matura foto cicciolina nuda videoannunci gratis lesbiche imaggini nana sexy supercazzi in culo super fiche labbro fica
If you need a really good files, information or soft visit rapidshare files
Comments on this entry are closed.