Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?

[alice wellintown]

The idea of a "Great American Novel" or "the Great American Novel" is
useful, even if it serves an argument that no such novel exists or has ever
existed or can ever exist, that is, a Platonic Ideal or,
anti-Platonic...anti-Cannonical...etc...argument. To dispense with it is to
acknowledge that it needs dispensing with and this might follow the common
approach of tracing its origins to an essay by De Forest, and then
examining how the Americans, writing in a language that was around long
before they were, one that is named after their Mother oppressor, and so
on...so American novel and the Spirit of forming a novel, American voice
and theme and character and plot and so on, distinct from and equal to, if
not, as with all other things, greater than the fading Empire's
productions, past present and future. The novel that holds in its womb and
loins the Zeitgeist, as surely GG does more than any other great work
of the period, is yet another way of defining the phrase, and on this and
on many other counts, one can certainly argue convincingly, given academic
generosity, that Fitzgerald's little book is a Great American Novel or,
novella, at least.

It has been argued that GR or M&D are Great American novels, but I would
have to go with AGTD, were I too argue that P has written one. Though V.
and GR are, in many respects, more like Moby-Dick, and Confidence Man, two
candidates for the accolade, AGTD has Twain in the mix, and all manner of
other things that make it a far better Graet American Novel than GR or M&D.


On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 1:56 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> I thought it was How to Make Love like a Porn Star
>
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> http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2013/may/01/is-great-gatsby-great-american-novel
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Gatsby#Reception
> >>
> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_American_Novel
> >
> >
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