Welcome to this month's reading group selection. David Von Drehle mentions The Melting Pot , a play by Israel Zangwill, that premiered on Broadway in 1908. At that time theater was accessible to a broad section of the public, not the exclusive domain it has become over the decades. Zangwill carried a hopeful message that America was a place where old hatreds and prejudices were pointless, and that in this new country immigrants would find a more open society. I suppose the reference was more an ironic one for Von Drehle, as he notes the racial and ethnic hatreds were on display everywhere, and at best Zangwill's play helped persons forget for a moment how deep these divides ran. Nevertheless, "the melting pot" made its way into the American lexicon, even if New York could best be describing as a boiling cauldron in the early twentieth century. Triangle: The Fire That Changed America takes a broad view of events that led up the notorious fire, not...
Torn between John Burt's Lincoln's Tragic Pragmatism,
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and Hirsch and Haften's Abraham Lincoln and the Structure of Reason,
http://www.thestructureofreason.com/
Have you ever considered reading Twain's Puddin'head Wilson? It seems rather topical in the wake of recent events.
ReplyDeleteNice to see you back, Rick. A little sarcastic humor might be in order.
ReplyDeleteHey Guys - yes, I'm back from the near dead. As I told Gintaras, last month I suffered from yet another attack of pneumonia and it took me a month to recover. Hopefully, I won't relapse as I am prone to do.
ReplyDeletePudd'nhead Wilson is one of the few books by Twain that I did not complete. Started it but forget why I dropped it. Might be a good suggestion for our next reading. I'll gladly start it again and hopefully not croak before I get to finish it.
Really nice to see some life in this forum again. I would enjoy a novel for a change. Maybe av will peek in here over the next few days and we can have a quorum ; )
ReplyDelete"life in the forum"
ReplyDeleteI've been through quite a few forums on blogspot.com many of whom have hundreds of subscribers. Despite the large number of members most of those forums have only a handful of posts. By contrast, we have only 15 members on this forum. Yet we have had a couple of thousand posts from the few members here. Fewer subscribers but far more activity than most! I think that speaks well for all of us. :)
A novel I read earlier this year that impressed me more than it did thirty-five years ago when I first read it is Erskine Caldwell's Tobacco Road. We might also consider another Faulkner novel or maybe something by Hawthorne or Melville or Kate Chopin or David Bradley or Henry James or . . . the possibilities are almost endless.
ReplyDeleteSo many novels, so little time. Here's a new one by Thomas Pynchon due out in September, which explores the dot.com culture in New York,
ReplyDeletehttp://www.theatlanticwire.com/entertainment/2013/06/thomas-pynchon-back-new-york/66140/
Did we ever read "Blithedale Romance" in the old NY Times forum?
ReplyDeleteI read it something like an eternity ago but don't exactly recall when. What stood out for me was the many interesting characters in the story.
Anyone think this is a good one to read for the group?
I have a copy for what it is worth.
ReplyDeleteThe local library has it but it's in paperback. I can perhaps ask f they can get me a copy of a large print or hard cover type with larger print.
ReplyDeleteAnybody else think it might be a good read for the group?
Sounds like it could be fun. I remember reading in the bio on Melville that he and Hawthorne had great fun with the Utopians.
ReplyDeleteLooking at abebooks, you can still get an 1851 first edition of The Blithedale Romance in reasonable shape for an affordable price. Like a lot of books of that era, it was first printed in London then in the States.
ReplyDeleteThe library has Blithedale on hold for me - I'll pick it up today or Monday but the lending period is limited to three weeks.
ReplyDeleteI can read it from the Internet if this is the book we want to read. Gutenberg has a copy.
ReplyDeleteIt is also available here online:
ReplyDeletehttp://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/h/hawthorne/nathaniel/h39b/index.html
Just got my copy from the library - it has a strict three week lending period but I'm sure I can read it well before the expiration. From reading some notes, it sure has some very interesting characters.
ReplyDeleteThree weeks should be enough. I will set The Blithedale Romance as our reading group selection.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much - it is an extraordinary book.
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