The last two 'texts' are in many ways the opposite of each other, but they share the same epic quality, and the same doorstop level in size. It is impossible to make a reading of the whole book 'USA', it will be slightly easier to abbreviate the film 'The Fountainhead'. Part of this book's epic quality is to try and do everything; in turn novel, newsreel, snapshot and biography, merging fact and fiction; in short it tries to be 'the Great American Novel'. I've selected certain sections.
The first section I would like you to read/research/google is the chapter 'The Bitter Drink' (pg 806) a portrait of the thinker Thorstein Veblen, author of 'Theory of the Leisure Class'(1899).
The second his portrait of Frank Lloyd Wright in the chapter 'Architect' (pg1076).
The third his portrait of Henry Ford in the chapter 'Tin Lizzie' (pg769).
These are all sections of the same, relatively short and concise, 'biographical' type.
The intension is to lodge this book in your mind for future reference. You never know when you might need reference to it, especially given the way the America it describes has developed over the last century. Certainly if Dos Passos was writing today, there would be a chapter on 'Trump'.
No comments:
Post a Comment