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Who Is America's Homer?

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Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#121

Post by nephihaha »

runarberg wrote: post #61
wk_end wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Steven Spielberg is probably the Homer of American cinema.

I would more consider him a Shakespeare of American Cinema rather then a Homer. Shakespeare was a prolific playwright (and a poet) who wrote plays about varied subjects and situations across the World of, some of his plays are of legendary status, and others not so great (same is true of Spielberg’s movies). Shakespeare’s plays (just like Spielberg) are also grounded in history and fiction rather then folk art and lo…

Spielberg has dealt with a few American tropes: UFO encounters, WW2 service men, slavery, monster sharks, road chases, cowboy archaeologists, tricksters, Abraham Lincoln, and hauntings.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#122

Post by dragontamer »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #81
legitster wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Twain is a good choice, but he also works against the mythology of America. His whole thing was popping bubbles and making grounded stories that work against the backdrop of Americana. Tracy Chapman is a pretty trolly answer, but I suspect the real answer might very well be a musician or filmmaker, not a writer.

> the real answer might very well be a musician or filmmaker, not a writer. Walter Disney, obviously. Well, it will probably take at least another century for the fact to hit.

Stan Lee probably had more influence than Walt Disney in terms of how Americans see themselves and how people around the world sees us.

Walt Disney is overwhelmingly about older stories (Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty), and not anything I feel distinctly "American".

The most popular and timeless properties out of Disney (ex: Mickey Mouse) aren't really telling stories or setting cultural trends IMO. Meanwhile, Superman and Spiderman (Okay, I know Stan Lee only partially had influence on Spiderman...) are closer to what people see as distinctly "American".

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#123

Post by GolfPopper »

rayiner wrote: post #114
B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the real answer might very well be a musician or filmmaker, not a writer. Walter Disney, obviously. Well, it will probably take at least another century for the fact to hit.

I think that’s correct. One way to look at it: when the Greek world expanded geographically, the new people tried to connect themselves with the Homeric stories (as did the Romans). Whose stories serve that function today? Disney.

Really? Advertising/Marketing aside, "What's up doc?" would seem to have a much bigger share of the zeitgeist, even today, than the Mouse.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#124

Post by dnautics »

legitster wrote: post #55
bryanrasmussen wrote: post #8

I 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…

Twain is a good choice, but he also works against the mythology of America. His whole thing was popping bubbles and making grounded stories that work against the backdrop of Americana. Tracy Chapman is a pretty trolly answer, but I suspect the real answer might very well be a musician or filmmaker, not a writer.

popping inflated egos is the mythology of America

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#125

Post by cgyvbunji »

bryanrasmussen wrote: post #8

I 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 think it is somewhat weird that nobody put Twain in

Edit: Lots of hate here. The question was why people didn't suggest Twain to be "America's Homer", and I answered the question: Twain is controversial, at least for some schools, and for someone such as CK, which should tell you something. Let's try not to shoot the messenger. If you didn't balk when you reached this line the first time you read the book, there might actually be something wrong with you.

"He [Mark Twain] also said 'There once was a man named [N-word] Jim,' so not everything he said was perfectly amazing" - Louis CK

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#129

Post by jimbob45 »

slwvx wrote: post #2

Mark Twain is America's Homer One aspect of Huckleberry Finn (the novel) that I think is relevant today is the spectacularly stupid zero-sum conflict between the Grangerfords and the Shepherdsons. It seems relevant to the US's politics and many international conflicts

Would anyone go out of their way to read any of Twain if it wasn’t required high school reading?

Also the American Homer is/was Garrison Keillor. Homer’s delivery was oral and radio is surely closer to oratory than books.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#130

Post by lsb »

Homer is the Homer of America, unless you believe in fencing off universal properties of mankind into exclusive tribal ownership.

(cf Saul Bellow asking “who is the Tolstoy of the Zulus”, and Ralph Wiley in the Atlantic saying that Tolstoy is the Tolstoy of the Zulus.)

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