“THE THINNESS OF AMERICAN LIFE….” I want to repeat part of yesterday’s post: “Brooks put the blame on Twain’s failure to develop on the thinness of American life, its cult of worldly success, its hearty insistence on conformity and its—odd note now—‘woman-centered’ cult of literature.'” Adam Gopnik notes that the criticism of America or American literature as “woman-centered” seems odd. But the other criticisms don’t seem odd. Ninety years after Brooks wrote, the criticisms of American culture—especially by cultural elites—seem familiar and contemporary.
To repeat yet again:
“thinness of American life”
“its cult of worldly success”
“its hearty insistence on conformity”
Do they sound familiar?
Of course, Twain was from the middle of the country where the life is thought to be particularly thin.