Tracking the ever-elusive Great American Novel

[jd]

Sorry, I have a habit of ctrl-a + deleting the previous text.  Using
gmail everything comes up in a linear fashion, almost like a forum, so
it's not quite as confusing.  Will try to remember to keep the
previous text in the future.

And I'm not being racist or chauvinistic (if in fact you were
referencing my comment)!  Just because I happen to be male and white
does not mean I'm being racist or chauvinistic just because I think a
book that happens to be written by a black female is bad.  I simply
found both of the books I read by her trite and simple-minded.  An
albino on steroids could have written them and I'd still feel the same
way.  I certainly think a lot of people out there honestly like her
writing, but I also feel there's a percentage of those who get caught
up with the fact that she's black and female and fail to make an
honest judgement based on her written text alone - and in fact they
bring the race / gender of the author into their judgement more than
someone who simply studies the words.  (and I'm not saying anyone on
this list does that, for the record, because I've not seen anyone make
any statement that would necessarily indicate such, but I have
certainly met people out there who do this).

On 5/23/06, Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> On May 23, 2006, at 10:38 AM, jd wrote:
>
> > anti-feminist anger?  Jesus christ jbor, I was playing along til then
> > but that's just silly.  Just because someone wins a Nobel Prize
> > doesn't make them some kind of goddess incapable of a few wrong words.
> > It has nothing to do with the fact that she's black, or that she's a
> > she, and everything to do with a few simple words spoken by a person.
> > And certainly no reason to start a petty e-bet.
> >
> > Tony Morrison is a shitty writer.  She's a popular shitty writer, but
> > you know what?  DaVinci Code outsold the Bible, so that's what the
> > measure of popularity is worth.  I think that I've given up my usual
> > middle of the road stance to come to a firm opinion on this.
> >
> > "blatant redneck misrepresentation of them" - if buying into some
> > trite BS is "redneck" (though it doesn't really make sense to make
> > this a race thing considering I find Ewidge Danticat, Frederick
> > Douglas, and Ralph Ellison fine authors) then damnit, American by
> > birth, Southern by the grace of God!
> >
>
>
>
> jd has introduced the innovation of not including the message one is
> responding to.
>
> Which is OK.
>
> It's getting harder and harder to remember who said what and to whom,
> on what occasion,  whether publicly or privately,  whether in a
> racist or
> male-chauvinistic manner, whether this type of confusion just adds to
> the fun, whether the whole thing would be even better if Doug were
> still on board.
>
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