Are You Up to the Challenge?
Ok, writers and readers, clearly the gauntlet has been proffered and it’s time to fight back with some words of our own. In his Weekly Standard article on The Great American Novel (GAN), Roger Kimball insists, “The novel plays a different and a diminished role in our cultural life as compared with even the quite recent past.” He goes on to suggest ” We lack the requisite community of readers, and the ambient shared cultural assumptions, to provide what we might call the responsorial friction that underwrites the traction of publicly acknowledged significance.”
Them’s fightin’ words!
In his recent guest post on the Portland Book Review‘s ”Writers on Writing,” Eric Olsen says we need a new GAN now more than ever. Dick Cummins followed up with some GANish suggestions of his own.
Please let us know what YOU think.
Well let’s see… you have to break down Roger Kimball’s words.
“The novel plays a different and a diminished role…;” “We lack the requisite community of readers…”— Okay so we need a book that can easily be made into a movie, mini-series, or such, because while some will read, you need to use visual media to get the country involved.
“…the ambient shared cultural assumptions…” – So essentially the book needs to me multi-cultural, prahps in a way that underlies the fact that, despite our cultural diferences, we are all human beings with hope, dreams, and fears that drive our lives.
“…responsorial friction that underwrites the traction of publicly acknowledged significance” – I’m going to just admit that I’m lost on this one. Does that mean we all have to react in the same manner, because I asure you that’s not going to be the case. Or does it mean that somehow the book needs to make it into our school cirriculum?
And now, I offer that up to anyone who wants to hop on it, because I’m not sure I”m up for the task… perhaps it ought to be a collaborative effort… After all, this country is made of coroporations, which are collaborations… right?