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And perhaps worst of all are books like Chicken Soup for the Soul, which are usually given as graduation gifts or gifts given to a person undergoing a difficult emotional crisis, again more like one would give a greeting card than a book full of information.
But Twitchell's other point, that the publishing industry must maintain a clear sense of high culture and guide rather than respond to America's tastes, is more controversial than his suggestion that the book world should re-focus its attention on reading rather than simply selling printed matter. Although some of the best sellers Twitchell despises, like works by Danielle Steel or Steven King, may be without merit one might ask -- has he ever read the cultural critiques found within the pages of a Calvin and Hobbes comic? Why speak of the quality of Salmon Rushdie in the same breath as Steel and King -- or even merge Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities, which is a critique of the commercialism of the 1980s with the excesses of Sidney Sheldon? Clearly, although America may buy bubble gum literature, many best sellers are not simply candy for the mind, but have a few vitamins and minerals along with their popular appeal.
At times, Twitchell...
(83) This has made books a subsidiary part of popular culture, he states, and has made the best seller more important than a great work of literature.
However, the influence of such political works like The Federalist Papers were only possible through the use of mass publishing in America's past, and they were both democratic and valuable works of literature. Great works of literature, from Shakespeare on the stage to Charles Dickens in print, were popular without publishers self-appointing themselves the guardians of America's taste. The persons who make the popularity of books that are not designed to be read, like coffee table books, might not buy books at all, rather than turn to less accessible 'great' works of literature if they could not buy such works. Finally, it is certainly possible to enjoy both Leviathan and a Calvin and Hobbes comic -- in fact, one reason a person might actually read the former work is out of curiosity for what inspired the great comic author Watterson to call his creation "Hobbes" in the first place.
Postmodern Literature Final In terms of the use of experimental techniques in the assigned readings this semester, I think I would judge Vonnegut to be the best and Ishmael Reed to be the worst. The simple criterion here is accessibility. There is no reason why experimental writing should be difficult or a chore to read. The constant emphasis on a surface level of linguistic novelty in Ishmael Reed makes the actual
The second half, entitled "Airborne Toxic Event, however, serves the role of criticizing the reality of American society and the result of its obsession with consumerism. In the second half, a chemical spill releases a mysterious airborne toxic event over Jack's home area, requiring everyone to evacuate. This event forces Jack to confront his own mortality and society's general fear of death and how it attempts to prevent death
" (Hendricks) Truth and culture are therefore seen to be created and destroyed by others for their own ends. In conclusion, the three literary works discussed above are in many respects very different but also indicate certain continuities of intention and discourse between romanticism, modernism and postmodernism. What links them all is the search for reality and truth that exists beneath the facade of everyday life and reality. As we progress
Postmodern Lit. An Analysis of the Postmodern Short Story Robert Coover's "Going for a Beer" passes like a dream: the faint perceptions of a man who does not know if he is coming or going -- or as Coover puts it, whether he has achieved an "orgasm" or not -- in the midst of various connections and misconnections to an assortment of characters. At the end, his life is over and all
Postmodern Book: Proposal Colson Whitehead's John Henry Days explores the relationship between fact and fiction with a postmodern narrative structure. One of the characteristics of postmodernism is the way in which it destabilizes what constitutes 'the known.' John Henry, according to American legend, was an African-American man who challenged a steel engine in a contest of who could work the hardest. Henry won, but died in the attempt. The saga of
In terms of sexuality, the film explores the different avenues by which teenagers are exposed to sexual content, which includes musical lyrics as demonstrated through the recitation of lyrics to "Papa Don't Preach" by Madonna, a pop culture music icon who has continuously infused her music with sexual themes. The film also makes reference to "The Gift of the Magi," a short story by O. Henry, which throws a