lol, a country not even 300 years, and Homer is ~3000 years ago. The Hollywood fixation is unreal.
Who Is America's Homer?
221–230 of 261 posts
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#222Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#223"America's Homer" isn't someone you pick by committee. The fact that you have to debate means that this person does not exist. The American literary tradition is far too new for someone to have the kind of impact as others on the list. We are talking about people who, through their writing, created and evolved language itself. No single author has defined how America speaks and writes the way Dante did for Italian or…
> No single author has defined how America speaks and writes the way Dante did for Italian No English language version of the Bible - prior to the King James Version - contained descriptions of Hell. At best, modern American conceptions/beliefs about Hell is fan-fiction based on Dante's Inferno.
Gehenna was well-known in the oral tradition of Jews and Muslims long before the 1600s. The whole "lake of fire" thing appears in the Book of Revelation, is very unambiguously referred to as such in the Greek text, and that's what most conceptions of hell come from. Dante's Inferno is literally frozen over at the bottom, which is not the standard Biblical version of Hell most people think of.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 lea…
Maybe the point of high school readings is just to give you some books that will be relatable when you’re finally an adult.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
But this is about poetry, would Twain qualify as a poet? My vote would go to Edgar Lee Masters because the spoon river anthology is one of the few poetry books I actually read, and it exemplifies a lot of the American spirit, IMVHO.
It's at least arguably about storytelling. You don't sit around the fire talking in verse for your entertainment. For instance, one of Homer's works is in the news due to a film being made of it. I suppose that suggests the Coen brothers.
Well, yes, the Coen brothers did do the best version of the Odyssey for screen after all.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#226Unfortunately that title is already reserved in the US for Homer Simpson.
I always found it relevant that in Spanish-dubs they translate the name of Homer to "Homero" which would be basically how you would refer to the classic author rather than to some american layman. (as if e.g. in France I translated Homer as Homère instead of plainly Homer).
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#227For me, it's Steinbeck. I think his novels capture the uniqueness American spirit, good and bad. Generosity and stubbornness, a contrast of high ideals and actions that don't always live up to them, but sometimes surpass them. They are practical stories about real people we've probably met but don't fully understand.
Cannery Row, To a God Unknown and Tortilla Flat are easy to read examples of this if you don't want to commit to East of Eden and The Grapes of Wrath. Travels with Charley is also a log of America in the 60s, even if you take it as a novel.
I can't argue against Whitman though.
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#228"America's Homer" isn't someone you pick by committee. The fact that you have to debate means that this person does not exist. The American literary tradition is far too new for someone to have the kind of impact as others on the list. We are talking about people who, through their writing, created and evolved language itself. No single author has defined how America speaks and writes the way Dante did for Italian or…
> No single author has defined how America speaks and writes the way Dante did for Italian No English language version of the Bible - prior to the King James Version - contained descriptions of Hell. At best, modern American conceptions/beliefs about Hell is fan-fiction based on Dante's Inferno.
Sheol got turned into Hades, then Christianity mashed it together with Gehenna to create "Hell".
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#229No one mentioning Gore Vidal (or Truman Capote)... so sad
Re: Who Is America's Homer?
#230no talk about the only american writer with the guts to try to be like homer? the battlefield where the moon says i love you by frank stanford. obscure just like homer was in his time.
also, no mention in these comments about william faulkner?
though, i would bet money that "the american homer" will be somebody most readers have never heard of.
it's definitely not twain or hemingway, like everybody is saying. if you think it's twain, then it is faulkner, who was the first white writer to not write a one dimensional black character.
and no talk about toni morrison?? zora neale hurston??? do y'all read american literature?