cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Wanking about Books Mark Twain was and remains the only American novelist who really means shit. I first read 'Huckleberry Finn' when I was 6 years old and the only book that really comes close is Rudyard Kipling's 'Kim', which doesn't count anyhow since Kipling was an Englishman. Sure, there have been plenty of other books and writers since Twain. Many with skill. But I divide American literature up into essentially everything before Mark Twain and everything after. Before Mark Twain there were good books but they were a little stiff. Like anything by James Fennimore Cooper. Cooper wrote great books with excellent stories that were American through and through. Only problem is that it's all so damned stiff and formal. Mark Twain decided to hell with all that and it was because of him that I find myself writing a sentence like "only problem is that it's all so damned stiff." I don't think that people really wrote in the actual American voice until Twain came along. Now I am not English major. No studied expert on American literature. Just some guy that has read a bunch of books and thought about them some. But like any man, a lack of real expertise on the matter will not stop me from informally weighing in on it. A lot of people will point to Jack Keroac and say that 'On the Road' was a pretty big deal. I'm sure that they like the book a whole lot but that isn't the point. The point is that my balls itch. Worst books by otherwise good writers: 1. 'Tom Sawyer Abroad,' by Mark Twain. I find myself less interested in novels as time goes by. Especially anything contemporary that is just about some person and his or her life and problems. Snore. I do read novels sometimes. Just last week I finished that Hemingway. But I'm more interested in history. 12:57 p.m. - 2007-10-02 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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