Great Men

As part of my study of the contemporary American novel, I decided that I would start with Norman Mailer’s The Naked and the Dead. Critics praise it as one of the best novels about World War II, if not one of the best American novels ever. One critic reviewed as “the most important American novel since Moby Dick.” Give it to the Providence Journal and their critic counterparts to using their clot to exaggerate on a works importance. Regardless I can say, without feeling like a sell out, this is still one of the best American novels I have read. Given that my experience with Contemporary American Literature has been the crap professors shove down ones throat in survey courses, i.e. Daniel Woodrell or worse the professor’s own works over McCarthy or Pynchon, I beginning to feel that this project that I am embarking on will change the way that I will see and think about American Literature. 

  The Naked and the Dead, is reminiscent (trying to not make one of those epic comparisons) of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. I know it is a heavy-handed comparison, but hear me out. One of Tolstoy’s major themes in War and Peace is the role of important and impressive men in history. Men like Napoleon, the Tsar or in Mailer’s case General Cummings. Both Tolstoy and Mailer describe these men as larger than life figures who make decisions that affects hundreds of lives without regrets. These Uber-Men are god-like to the simple solders. While giving orders upon learning of a Japanese offensive Cummings, one of the officers noticed that “the enlisted men looked to him (Cummings) almost in awe” in his ability to spew out orders. Cummings is described as having inhuman amount of concentration with quick and instinctively just decisions. He even states about himself, “if there is a God, Robert, he’s just like me.”

 However, what makes Cummings more dynamic is Mailer’s use of Cummings as the voice/figure head of the military superstructure. Cummings rules by fear and anxiety. He creates fear of retaliation from his officers towards the enlisted men. To Cummings “the army functions best when you’re frightened of the man above you, and contemptuous of your subordinates.” What differs here between Tolstoy and Mailer is Tolstoy seems to admire these Uber-Men, while Mailer gives a more complete description where they are worthy admiration yet are incredibly shady.

 

I giggled over this a lot. Peter Gronquist.  

Tom Sachs

Obviously a joke/piece of high art. But makes me wonder if we did place designer labels on everything would they become valuable? Would putting Chanel on a guillotine make it a fashion accessory? Would I feel less important if I were killed with a Wal Mart guillotine, would the use of the Chanel validate my crimes?

Tom Sachs. Word.

New

Since the last blog entry, some things have happened to me…which have all lead (in a there own way) to me sitting inside of Cosmo’s writing this very blog post.

1. Got Married. July 12. Just as stressful as any person could imagine. I would much rather have tried to settle the cold war by myself than re-marry. Still, however, the most important day of my life and I am quite happy with the results.

2. Did not find a job in Seattle that would enable me to move to the Pacific Northwest. I told myself that if I did not get a job I would not move. For now, I am stuck in San Diego. Its not a desperate situation, we have a pretty spiffy place in Golden Hill/South Park (depending on who you ask) and it gives me time to focus on re-applying to graduate programs.

3. The sudden realization that my own academic interests has out grown the courses offered at SDSU or UCSD. This now leads me to create my own course in American Literature and Theory. Though at this point only the American Lit section is written and as of today enacted, I will be quickly adding a theory course soon. Ultimately the goal is this to get through a long list of books, with have been arranged in chronological order. It is my own survey course in Contemporary Lit. I will not give the book list here, to spare you the details, but I will be adding weekly posts to the site reflection on that weeks reading. On top of that, I will begin a general survey of the works of Terry Eagleton. Have not looked too much into titles as of now, but will be jumping on that probably tomorrow.