Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?

[alice wellintown]

As I grew up on Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys (not much Tom Swift, though I had a
brother who was more Tom Sawyer and even better, more Dill, aka Truman
Capote, than Huck Finn or Cowboy or Soldier of Fortune, and he had those
Appleton books on the shelf, but preferred my books, eventually Little
House and Jane A., Bronte Sisters, Cather, then Monty Python and Tennessee
Williams...go figure...and as  ...our Mother read drug store romances...our
Father, kinda  like Scout's, read the NY Times and Wall Street
Journal...Law books and Briefs, Research...pushed math and engineering at
us like all Plathian Daddys did, almost made a drop-out out of us...but we
had to go to ...well...you know...) , but, even today I dind it difficult
to put Elizabeth Bishop's Fish in the same wicker basket with the Fisher
King in Eliot's tradition and individual talent, and, though Eliot is an
ass and all, still...how does one put The Awakening in the same Great
American whatever with her male counterparts?  And so on down the list of
females. But can they write? Forget about what they write about. Can't
Wharton write better than Pynchon. Sure she can. She makes him an armature
sometimes.


On Sat, May 4, 2013 at 2:50 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> My Antonia - Willa Cather
> The Dollmaker - Harriet Arnow
> To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee (much beloved, though lacking in
> subtext)
>
> Haven't read Edith Wharton, so don't know if she belongs.
>
> Personally, I think Gatsby doesn't hold up in this day and age. If
> anything, the impending, glitzed up Luhrman (sounds like lurid) confirms my
> opinion.
>
> Laura
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alice wellintown **
> Sent: May 4, 2013 2:36 PM
> To: pynchon -l **
> Subject: Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
>
> Say Fell-uzz, howz about puttin a lady on, dat dare list use is may kin?
> Aint we got nothin to say what use boys finds worthy of readin wit he same
> set of eyes as use read wit when all those macho authors is concerned?
>
>
>
> On Saturday, May 4, 2013, Ian Livingston wrote:
>
>> 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.....
>>
>>
>>
>>  ****
>
>
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