/lit/ - Literature

(Title here) is the most/greatest/best (useless distinction here)

Awesome thread, rockstar.

I appreciate your kindness, But I am afraid I am not a Rockstar.
Anyway, why isn't it valid to think of Moby Dick as the National Epic of the United States?

>>3766439

thats not Huck Fin

>National Epics
>2013

who cares if it is or isn't, what's the fucking point

did you enjoy it?

A Story that embodies our soul as a people.

>>3766422
>Moby Dick is the Great American Novel [of its time]

>>3766441
this guy right here knows what he's talking about

>>3766422
What a unique and insightful opinion OP

Than you for that well-rehearsed statement on why such an overlooked gem of a book should actually take the place of the great american novel

You may be the first literary critic to ever hold such a contrarian and radically different position

>>3766422
Murrica going all out against perceived enemy, attacking it on its own turf full of vigour and confidence but ultimately grossly underestimating the situation which turns out to be a great disaster after which those who did not die beat a hasty retreat, humiliated by a force they deemed inferior to themselves. Seems legit.

>>3766451
If that distinction is made, then which work would embody America today?

>American
>great novel
Pick one.

>>3766458
Thank you kind sir. I am literally giddy with praise

>>3766463
How about 6?

Scarlet Letter
Huck Finn
Moby Dick
As I Lay Dying
Mason & Dixon
Blood Meridian

>>3766460
Lets call it "going down in a blaze of glory like Hector" instead

>>3766462
Ee ee eeeeeeeeeeeee

>>3766472
Why don't I see Uncle Tom's Cabin on this list?

>>3766443
Come on, The Crew of the Pequod, Ethinically diverse and yet united in purpose? What is not to like?

>>3766462
infinite jest

>>3766462
Blood Meridian?

>>3766509
>>3766513
Why?

>>3766509
Go to sleep, now, you little ugly.

>>3766483
Uncle Tom's Cabin was mindless political trash. It just so happened to be the first mindless political trash, so people don't understand that. Sensationalized, politicized, prejudicized trash

>>3766472
>not The Sound and the Fury
>no Invisible Man

>>3766516
BECAUSE IT GOOOOOD

>>3766533
I think you mean, "Because It is Good". Even corrected, it is still not an answer to the question.

Freedom is the Great American Novel

>>3766523
But it caused the Civil War. That has to count for something.

>>3766544

>>3766523
>Uncle Tom's Cabin was mindless political trash.
Jesus Christ, shut up and go back to /pol/

JUST FUCKING LEAVE

>>3766559
I fail to see what a cartoon character has to do with my post.

>>3766494
National Epics are just another resource for nationalists to manipulate. You don't need 'em, maaaan.

>>3766544
>>3766533
Blood Meridian carries on in the tradition, which is to say that it is a response to the great works before it especially Melville, or carries on the conversation Melville started.

Infinite Jest converses with eurotrash critical theorists. Infinite Jest is not American. Infinite Jest is the rich try-hard cocksucker in high school who went to paris for a summer for a study abroad and comes back pretentiously cultured.

Blood Meridian is the culmination of all dramatic tragedy and glory actually at work within the school.

>>3766584
Or is it?

>>3766472
As I Lay Dying?

How is that in any sense, way, shape, or form better or more American that Absalom, Absalom! or Sound and the Fury, or even Light In August?
Why would you pick the Faulkner that is not legendary for its depiction of race relations?

>>3766581
What is wrong with nationalism, and with someone wanting to embody the noble and beautiful ideals of his homeland in prose?

>>3766596
Wait...Faulkner wrote more books?

>>3766604
I don't think I understand what you are trying to say.

>>3766573
Don't be so autistic

>>3766584

>>3766595
>What is wrong with nationalism
Nothing inherently, but it's a political project. Why categorise literature according to how it fits into that project? Why not just appreciate books as books?

>>3766634
Making works emblematic of our culture?

>>3766619
Don't mock my carefully cultivated psychosis

>>3766645
You... only have one culture?

>>3766662
Why would I have more than one?

>>3766662
Remember
>amuricans