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Who Is America's Homer?
91–100 of 261 posts
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#92Unfortunately that title is already reserved in the US for Homer Simpson.
Simpson, eh? I'll remember that name!
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#93I think it is somewhat weird that nobody put Twain in. I could also see someone suggesting Hemingway, although I don't buy it. Hart Crane at this point in time seems somewhat secondary, so that was surprising. The Tracy Chapman thing seemed seriously like a troll, I could definitely agree to a black Homer, but then I guess it would be Langston Hughes or James Baldwin as my choices. To suggest someone though who has t…
> I could also see someone suggesting Hemingway, although I don't buy it.
Some of his works are already in the public domain in the US and can be found on Project Gutenberg, so you may not have to buy.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#94Hot take (with recency bias): Ron Chernow
Homer and Virgil were historians at the end of the day. Whether what they reported as happening was true or not is as irrelevant as whether Alexander Hamilton threw away his shot at Aaron Burr or not. Their writings, just like Chernow’s, are steeped in legend.
Chernow’s work has excellently captured:
Alexander Hamilton John D Rockefeller JP Morgan Ulysses (!) S. Grant Etc.
As I type this out, perhaps the best comparison for Chernow is actually Plutarch? Either way, I haven’t seen anyone mention him and that would be an unfortunate oversight.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#95isn't it obviously steinbeck? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_of_Eden_(novel) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath (one of the best books i've ever read)
I think that steinbeck is probably the correct answer. the iliad and the odyssey are not just "action epics", they are parable-ish in what they communicate to readers (or listeners) of their society. For example, it's not a coincidence that odysseus sleeps around the aegean sea while penelope chases suitors off at home.
Twain is a pretty good second choice, but Steinbeck has a pretty good lock on parables of American aspirations and its society both good and bad.
Steinbeck also wrote "the pearl" and of course "of mice and men"
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#96English majors seem to have banded together to crown only the most inaccessible and politically charged authors as worthy of attention. If you like anyone else, you're just too inexperienced or partisan to appreciate real literature. To hell with them. The answer is Brandon Sanderson who is freely sharing his knowledge of how to write with the world. His teachings will touch more in the coming years than any stodgy 1…
Do you consider Frost inaccessible (or for that matter politically-charged)? I think every kid who grows up in New England reads him in elementary or middle school.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#97Chuck Tingle
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#98Earlier quoted context omitted.
I can write a poem in my head without ever writing it down on paper. I still wrote a poem, even if I just pass it along orally. If I write a song for my girl, I'm not going to hand her a piece of paper with sheet music and lyrics, I'm going to perform it for her. I may write it down, or I may not. Of course, composed is a more precise word, but everyone still knows what I mean if I replace it with write.
> I can write a poem in my head without ever writing it down on paper. I still wrote a poem, even if I just pass it along orally This is generalising the term writing to the point of uselessness. In your example, you thought of a poem and spoke it. You didn't write it.
I don’t think so. The colloquial usage exists as grandparent commenter describes. I can be a “songwriter” without literally writing the lyrics to my song down.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#99“Do we have a great poet who captures the American spirit, the American story, the American identity?”
No. There’s no singular “American identity” or story to capture. The U.S. has produced some amazing writers and storytellers who are, IMO, equal to the greats of other countries, but we have no collective identity that can be captured by a single person.
But if you put a gun to my head to identify one, I might argue for Steven Spielberg. If the U.S. has a Homer they’re not a poet or writer, they’re a filmmaker or TV producer.
The films he’s directed certainly capture big parts of the American mythologies, perhaps the largest of a single person.
Another option: Norman Lear. Maybe even more than Spielberg with All in the Family, Good Times, The Jeffersons, One Day at a Time… yeah. He definitely nailed a broad slice of American culture for a good chunk of time.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#100Earlier quoted context omitted.
And France has Molière, and Portugal has Camões...how many authors should be listed?
If you are a 250 year old nation built on "stolen land" (by the europeans, mind you), I would assume not many. But the US has been home to many great writers. This is just stupid.
All land is "stolen". The people the US "stole" the land from had "stolen" it from someone else and so on and so forth.