American Cornball

[Mark Kohut]

I've long heard of it; I had a copy until my recent book-dismantling,
but have not read it but yes to Cherrycoke, of course
AND maybe P carefully, clearly, has him drop the social mask in the
beginning of the book, the END of his social adventures?



On Wed, Jan 21, 2015 at 12:20 PM, Becky Lindroos <bekker2 at icloud.com> wrote:
> I don't know if anyone is old enough to have read "American Humor: A Study of the National Character"  by Constance Rourke (1931 but a classic) which I read in college as a history major.
>
> Rourke identified the character of the "Yankee" as the first American comic and I see Cherrycoke as having some of the characteristics of this archetype.
>
> From the link below:
> " had grown up under the watchful eye of his fellow Puritans and had learned to hide his playfulness beneath a social mask. His speech was quirky by design. He drawled out such lines as "If you catch me there agin, you'll catch a white weasel asleep, I tell you." He typically answered one question with another, in order to prolong conversation without giving anything away.
>
> But she also describes the "frontiersman ," and the "minstrel" and their relationship to the culture as a whole.  We were couuntry bumpkins to the rest of the world  - but proud of it to ourselves as long as we could make a buck.
>
> http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/03/28/whats_so_funny_about_americans_anyway/?page=full
>
> That was such a great book and it was rereleased in 2004 so I'm tempted to get it - okay,  I got it.  lol
>
> Bekah
>
>
>> On Jan 21, 2015, at 7:22 AM, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> http://americancornball.tumblr.com
>>
>> http://www.harpercollins.com/9780062225177/american-cornball
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l