Thanks pup, it was a nice touch by Melville saying "The truth, it don't pay." He knew the wolf was always at the door.

Bless your heart pup, it would be difficult to fault Franklin whose writings should be devoured. As to recommendations, give me another month or so please. This old fellow goes to bed with the chickens but his thoughts go with him and if all goes well I'll be here tomorrow.

Some lit instructors believe Hemingway and Steinbeck is all there is to know about American literature. I can see where you would be regarded as a heretic, Sam. But on the up-side, you are still here; obviously, you were not burned at the stake in a college quad. When my kid was assigned Grapes, she had the audacity to ask at what point does one simply read what the author has to say rather than dissect it to figure out what he is "really saying?" I admit some of her essay questions seemed pointless and well--in her words, stupid. Did the Joads (12 in all) represent Christ's apostles and Casey the preacher represent Jesus? She said maybe the party of 13 represented the original colonies and an American revolution.

Intepreting literature is in no small measure applying one's own values. It can be a tricky business. I personally have burned out on "the human condition." The last books I read were Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Right now, I'm reading a book that explains Beowulf. I'd say if one wants to know the story, just rent the movie.

I have a family member who always talks about the social meaning of a movie.  What the writer is really saying.  For me, books and movies are entertainment.  To spend time dissecting them and analyzing them is a waste of a good story.  Sometimes a cigar really is....just a cigar.

What to say? When it comes to literature we all have our favorites and some books are just to wade through in classes or for coffee tables. I was delighted to come through university alive and went on to read what I wanted rather than being told what to read.

Sam, I know that feeling.  :-)

I know the feeling too, since Hemingway and Steinbeck are the authors that I was told to read.

Had I been assigned Loren Eiseley instead, I might have come to appreciate literature at a much younger age.

Wow.  You guys are singing my song.  I have no beef with Steinbeck's politics per se.  I just think there's enough politics in this world without finding it in my fiction, too.  I also think there should be more balance in english classes in high school.  I realize it's important to teach our kids some of the famous literature of history, but at the same time, they should throw in a really good book now and then to keep the kids awake--maybe something kid-oriented like The Outsiders.  It would be a refreshing change after The Scarlet Letter.  God, I hated that book!

LOL. For all its literary value, I still think Scarlet Letter should be registered as a sleep aid.

I know literature has fallen on hard times in America, and some writers are boring despite great reputations. I'll take a good book, but I also appreciate a fine film based on a good book.

Sam, I deleted it.  Did you delete my other comment about maggies childish mocking game?  If not, then I take it harrassment is ok on this blog?

Sam, friendly advice here-- it's gauche to delete comments unless they are really, really obscene.  We're just having a dialogue, right?

G G Marquez...

If we just follow the rules as given there can be discussion. No personal insults: Period! I will delete all such. No Nancy, I did not delete your remarks so I don't know what happened. But I run my posts as I see fit. No one has to comment.

I'm done here.

I deleted myself and cherish thought...

Goodbye...

It is very difficult to maintain a civil discussion on matters people feel strongly about; but I continue to require people to be polite on my posts.

Okey-doke, Sam.  It's your blog topic=your call.  I've been deleted from blog topics for no other reason than the person just didn't agree with what I had to say.  Pretty cheesy, but then I took it as a compliment.  After all, I was RIGHT, and they knew it.  ; )

Thanks pup, it does take a lot of effort to keep a polite post but most of us are capable of doing so if we put our minds to it.

Sam - nobody mentioned one of my favories:  Edgar Allan Poe.  It's difficult for me to believe the fellow had much truck with politics or the very idea of politics.  But then I don't know.  I believe he wrote simply because it was what he did and what he had to do.  It was what he was.  A lot of the madness emerged in his writing, but perhaps drugs and/or alcohol had a little something to do with that.  I'm happy he wrote.  I still remember my introduction to Poe:  my older sister read many of his works to me when I was probably 8 or 9 years old.  Pure heaven.

I agree with you about Poe, Alicen.  I LOVE his writing.

I would read Poe in the high school library during lunch break sometimes.  When things got too "Beverly Hills 90210" soap-operaey at school I would just escape into the library.  That's where I found Hemingway, Poe, Fitzgerald and many others.

Along with Bible verses I was memorizing The Raven. Probably says something about me I'd maybe not want to know.

Nevermore. 

Poe had an appeal to me before high school. I was motivated to read a biographical sketch that mentioned his alcoholsim. Even now, when someone says "Poe" I think "tormented mind." I still enjoy the old Vincent Price portrayals in movie adaptions of Poe stories. (When I run across them.)

Ah, those Gothic Vincent Price portrayals of Poe's stories. His own admiration of Poe really came through in those films.

Sometimes the best results come despite (or because of?) the worst hardships.  Beethoven writing symphonies even after he became deaf falls under that category, I think.

Stories of the tormented artist and suffering for their art, compelled by some force beyond them and sometimes mad. But we know adversity often brings out the real character of the individual whether for good or ill.

Sam, something tells me you and I could sit around discussing literature all day.  : )

I think most commenting here share that sentiment Catherine. Wouldn't it be marvelous if people could discuss the great ideas of literature and the great writers and pass our time here so pleasantly.

I agree, Sam.  This is MY kind of blog.  Occasionally I will find a political topic that I find interesting, but there really seems to be a dearth of this kind of blog.  Keep it up!

I second that.

Thanks Catherine; my muse at times takes some uncertain even distasteful turns in confronting some issues but great literature, that is the pile Thoreau hoped we might scale heaven at last.

For anyone interested in the topic of the Dust Bowl era I just received the following. Please feel free to send a note asking for the brochure:

Hello Sam, I hope you are doing well.  I have spent the last six years writing, "From the Arvin Migrant Camp to the American Dream."  I would like to send you a brochure.  Please send me your address and the address of anyone else that would like to receive a brochure.  Thank you, Elizabeth Strickland.

rt66californiafields@yahoo.com

It was Poe's madness that made itself known in his writings.  If he had not been Edgar Allan Poe, he simply could not have created those, well, what I call masterpieces.  I believe it was Poe's "The Pit and the Pendulum" that my sister first read to me.  She could have read it over and over and I would never have tired of it.  There are writers today who write of horror and fear, but I'm sorry, there's nothing to compare with the agonizing torment of anticipation of what was going to happen in a Poe story -- or even poem.  I still feel ripples of fearful anticipation simply thinking about "The Raven."  

And, yes, Vincent Price was perfect for any Poe story ever portrayed on the silver screen.