Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?

[Ian Livingston]

Covers my take on Gatsby:
http://skreened.com/daydream/ain-t-no-party-like-a-gatsby-party

And where's Papa?

I'd need more contemplating time to make a list....


On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 8:31 AM, <eburns at gmail.com> wrote:

> Lolita
> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
> ------------------------------
> *From: * kelber at mindspring.com
> *Sender: * owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
> *Date: *Sat, 4 May 2013 11:23:40 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
> *To: *<pynchon-l at waste.org>
> *ReplyTo: * kelber at mindspring.com
> *Subject: *Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
>
> USA - Dos Passos
>
> LK
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: David Morris **
> Sent: May 4, 2013 11:20 AM
> To: Mark Kohut **
> Cc: alice wellintown **, pynchon -l **
> Subject: Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
>
> A faulty list doesn't include Faulkner.  And I don't think All the King's
> Men fits this league.
>
> On Saturday, May 4, 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>> Great American Novels:
>> Moby Dick
>> Huck Finn
>> The Great Gatsby
>> The Scarlet Letter
>> The Grapes of Wrath (?)...does anyone ever reread?
>> All the King's Men
>> Portrait of a Lady
>> Invisible Man
>> Augie March or Herzog?
>> Gravity's Rainbow
>> Against the Day
>>
>> 11 of a top 10 list...(I guess Steinbeck would have to be dropped but
>> that feels not just to the Joads.
>>
>> Argue and creat your own list, Plisters.....
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>   *From:* alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
>> *To:* pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> *Sent:* Saturday, May 4, 2013 7:51 AM
>> *Subject:* Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
>>
>>  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
>>
>>
>> >>
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> 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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