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Who Is America's Homer?

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Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#141

Post by [deleted] »

somenameforme wrote: post #140
assimpleaspossi wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you're going to quote a guy accused of sexual misconduct? CK will never be a Homer. But bringing that quote up from a piece of literature, not just something he said, is being ridiculous.

It's also amazingly ignorant. The entire point of Jim in Huck Finn is the extreme irony between superficiality and reality. Everybody in Huck Finn is horrible, including Huck himself, yet they mostly all paint themselves as the most honorable and just of people - and in most cases probably believe it. The one exception is Jim who everybody just casually dismisses, yet he's the one truly good hearted and upstanding ch…

[deleted]

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#142

Post by kstenerud »

oliculipolicula wrote: post #72
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.

Hmm Wheres the evidence that Homer work ed for the mythology of Dark Age Greece? If you say its his popularity.. (I would cite the Cyclics as counter evidence) For filmmaker: itd have to be someone whom you can imagine (unironically) reconstructing Adams or other actual American heroes So.. Tom Hanks

I'd actually put one in for Clint Eastwood.

Although most popular knowledge about him revolves around his earlier acting career (Westerns, Dirty Harry), you'll notice a distinct change in many of his films once he started directing.

* Play Misty for Me

* Breezy

* Unforgiven

* A Perfect World

* The Bridges of Madison County

* Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

* Mystic River

* Million Dollar Baby

* Changeling

* Gran Torino

* American Sniper

* Sully

* The Mule

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#143

Post by somenameforme »

jimbob45 wrote: post #129
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.

I did. I read some of Twain in high school but didn't really "get it", in hindsight. Then as I grew older and began reading many of Twain's endless quotes it made me want to go read more of his works, and I'm glad I did.

I think high school readings are quite pointless in general, because most kids either aren't mentally developed enough, or aren't going to have the focus, to actually "get" what's being said - at least not beyond the point of cramming enough stuff down to be able to puke it back up on a test/report.

That was certainly the case for me and I think this is extremely common given there are plenty of people that think Huck Finn is a racist book, when the entire underlying message is a never-ending mockery of racism.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#144

Post by [deleted] »

assimpleaspossi wrote: post #133
cgyvbunji wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

And you're going to quote a guy accused of sexual misconduct? CK will never be a Homer. But bringing that quote up from a piece of literature, not just something he said, is being ridiculous.

[deleted]

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#146

Post by LarsDu88 »

dragontamer wrote: post #122
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.

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. Meanwhil…

You mean Jack Kirby right? LoL

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#147

Post by cgyvbunji »

somenameforme wrote: post #140
assimpleaspossi wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And you're going to quote a guy accused of sexual misconduct? CK will never be a Homer. But bringing that quote up from a piece of literature, not just something he said, is being ridiculous.

It's also amazingly ignorant. The entire point of Jim in Huck Finn is the extreme irony between superficiality and reality. Everybody in Huck Finn is horrible, including Huck himself, yet they mostly all paint themselves as the most honorable and just of people - and in most cases probably believe it. The one exception is Jim who everybody just casually dismisses, yet he's the one truly good hearted and upstanding ch…

> The one exception is Jim who everybody just casually dismisses, yet he's the one truly good hearted and upstanding character in the entire book

Sure but you have to read the book first to know that, whereas the reader gets slapped in the face right away with the racial slur while reading the book for the first time, which is why some schools don't read Twain. This thread is about why people might not pick him to be the "America's Homer", I'm not trying to say anything more than that.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#148

Post by oliculipolicula »

GolfPopper wrote: post #123
rayiner wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Hollywood may only think that there are any Pacific Islanders today who want to be Auliʻi Cravalho, but every allied nation hopes to get their own Emmett Brown?

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#149

Post by marcus_holmes »

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

Came here to say this and I'm not even American. It's definitely Twain.

Though other American countries (even just North American countries) might have different opinions, so maybe he's just the USA's Homer.

Re: Who Is America's Homer?

#150

Post by marcus_holmes »

marginalia_nu wrote: post #36
wk_end wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Socrates, I'd say.

Diogenes of Sinope is maybe closer? He was sort of a living meme and there's a significant volume of apocryphal anecdotes of hijinks and pseudepigraphical writings, going on long after his death.

Definitely Diogenes, 100%
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