Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?

[Bekah]

I agree there can't be one "Great American Novel" because  too many of the contenders fall in the 20th century - Gatsby,  Light in August,  Grapes of Wrath,  Their Eyes Were Watching God,  The Sun Also Rises,  The Pearl - etc.   That gives American lit a kind of "Golden Age" of sorts - like Russia had in the 19th century - and how could one choose between one between the likes of Gogol and Pushkin and Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and Chekov and Turgenev? 

And the US bagged the Nobel in Lit in 1930,  1936, 1938,  1949,  1954, 1962, 1976, 1978, 1987 and  1993 - (3 women)  with none prior and none since.   (This doesn't count for everything of course,  Joyce never got a Nobel and there's some politics involved.)  

Had to look those Nobels up: 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_laureates_in_Literature

Bekah

On May 4, 2013, at 4:30 PM, Tara Brady <madame.brady at gmail.com> wrote:

> I'd love to say Sound and Fury. Or Le May's The Searchers. Or Hall's Warlock.Or Gravity's Rainbow. BTW I'm trying to popularise the phrase 'Climbing the 'Bow' with my children. I'm counting on the P-List to back me up. Hsve eldest son reading book on idea that 'Climbing the 'Bow' is a cool thing to do. 
> 
>  But I've going with Rich - almost - and saying Make Love: The Bruce Campbell Way.
> 
> I think - forgive me - the notion of the Great American Novel is done. The Great American Novel must be 20th century or not at all.  That is the US' century. This is the century beyond place.
> 
> Gatsby is lovely in this respect. 
> 
> Btw very interested in Shot Heard Around World thread recently. As baseball World Series is so not at all worldwide.
> 
> Best, T
> 
> BTW I recommend Star Trek Into Darkness as Americana central. Americana was never better - and never made more sense to Rest of World - than  it did as Golden Age sci-fi.
> 
> Then again my fave game is still I Have No Mouth on various proxies. Sad, I know. 
> 
> 
> 
> On 4 May 2013 23:55, Monte Davis <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
> Eudora Welty
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
> Of Bekah
> Sent: Saturday, May 04, 2013 3:52 PM
> To: kelber at mindspring.com
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Is The Great Gatsby the Great American Novel?
> 
> Yes to those Laura mentioned plus:
> 
> Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence
> Toni Morrison for Beloved
>  Zora Neale Hurston for Their Eyes Were Watching God Kate Chopin for The
> Awakening Pearl Buck for The Good Earth Jane Smiley for The Greenlanders
> Alice Walker for The Color Purple
> 
> 
> Bekah
> 
> 
> 
> On May 4, 2013, at 11:50 AM, 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 BlackBerryR 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.....
> >
> >
> 
>