What the hell do I do?

[CanOfCorn]

What are you talking a-boot?

 

 

well played There is a comedian in the hoose!

 

What? I don't understand a word, eh.

 

Maybe you should try using upspeak.

 

 

[BobDylan]

Kerouac not a great American writer?

 

Would he be in your top 10,000? 1,000? 100?

 

I'm guessing that Ginsberg, Burroughs, and the rest of that group is also not on your list of great American writers?

 

(All of what I'm about to write is subjective.)

 

Ginsberg is a good writer, I won't deny him that. Though, I'm not a fan. Same goes for Burroughs. I think the term (phrase?) "great American writer" is overused. The word "great" is strong. Off the top of my head, I can only think of four writers that I'd give a free pass into "great" status: Shakespeare, Homer, Nabokov, Joyce.

 

Most of the "great American writers" have one great book and then a few, if not several good or average books. (I'm not counting poets because I don't follow/read poetry.)

 

Hemingway: The Sun Also Rises

Salinger: The Catcher in the Rye (though I love Franny and Zooey)

Faulker: As I Lay Dying (and possibly The Sound and the Fury) (Actually, Faulkner is a good f***ing writer. A lot of good, if not great books. He might be the sole writer from America I'd call great--(if we discount Nabokov for being, well, Russian). But, I won't argue against people who won't.)

Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

Hawthorne: The Scarlet Letter

Melville: Moby Dick

Stephen King: Carrie, The Shining, Dark Tower Series, The Stand, It, Cujo

etc.

 

I also don't think Ginsberg, Kerouac, or Burroughs can carry the jock-strap of any of the writers I mentioned in the list above. ('Cept King.)

 

But hey, to each his own. If you'd like to keep the discussion going or if anyone else wants to chime in, I'm game.

Edited March 24, 2008 by BobDylan

[Texsox]

For the sake of argument, I will not challenge your statement about them carrying the jock. You picked writers who I agree are great. I just believe there is much more room on that list. Basically you nailed a list of conventional, dead white guys in US literature. Even in that vein I would have added

 

Twain

Thoreau

London

James

Whitman

Poe

Frost

Cummings

Eliot

 

And certainly we have produced some great women writers

Wharton

Stein

Chopin

Alcott

 

 

And minorities

Frederick Douglas

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

Du Bois

William Carlos Williams

Langston Hughes

 

I'd also give consideration to Capote and Sinclair.

[Steve9347]

I'm set to graduate in a few months. Creative writing degree.

I've seen your website, do you really need a degree to tell you you can write?

Edited March 24, 2008 by Steve9347

[BobDylan]

I've seen your website, do you really need a degree to tell you you can write?

 

Thanks for the compliment (I think that's what you were saying?) I need the degree to get a job, I think.

[BobDylan]

For the sake of argument, I will not challenge your statement about them carrying the jock. You picked writers who I agree are great. I just believe there is much more room on that list. Basically you nailed a list of conventional, dead white guys in US literature. Even in that vein I would have added

 

Twain

Thoreau

London

James

Whitman

Poe

Frost

Cummings

Eliot

 

And certainly we have produced some great women writers

Wharton

Stein

Chopin

Alcott

 

 

And minorities

Frederick Douglas

Rolando Hinojosa-Smith

Du Bois

William Carlos Williams

Langston Hughes

 

I'd also give consideration to Capote and Sinclair.

 

Same goes for most of the writers you've listed. One great work followed by minor works. Sinclair's "masterpiece" (which I don't think it is) is The Jungle. It's a good book, if not average. I don't know if I'd put Poe and Frost on that list. Poe was a terrible poet if I can say so without having read much poetry. He was also a short story writer, not a novelist. Frost, I mean, just too hokey to be taken seriously.

 

Twain, gotta respect Huck Finn. Most people probably don't know who Jack London is outside of The Call of the Wild. I've always hated that book but I understand the appeal.

 

I don't know, it just feels like the list you've compiled is the high-school catalogue.

[SnB]

yesterday I was asked by a 4 year old, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

 

...I still don't have an answer, graduating in 6 weeks

[CanOfCorn]

yesterday I was asked by a 4 year old, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

 

...I still don't have an answer, graduating in 6 weeks

 

I'm 36...going to have our first child...been working in the video production world for 15 years and if you asked me the same question, I STILL would say...

 

"I have no idea."

[SoxFan562004]

I think you should write, write, and then write some more... Now, to the more practical issue of how you will pay your bills, eat etc... that depends.

 

If you need to get a decent paying job right off the bat, look around in bigger companies, ie insurance or bigger law firms. You can probably find a receptionist job or something in the mail room, that will be a steady check with possible health insurance and the like.

 

You can also wait tables, that would help you meet a lot of interesting people to add fuel to your creative fire. Things like working at a bookstore or a movie theater cna give you more schedule flexability.

 

Travel if you can. Do Europe on the cheap.

 

Overall just have fun. I have a "career", but don't have a ton of bills or a family I'm responsible for so i take advantage of that. From September of last year until August of this year I will have gone to Vegas x3, Hawaii, Ireland and Portland, with weekend trips to my friends places on lakes mixed in. Enjoy yourself and don't spend a lot of time sweating the small stuff.

[SoxFan562004]

I'm 36...going to have our first child...been working in the video production world for 15 years and if you asked me the same question, I STILL would say...

 

"I have no idea."

I'm only 29 and an attorney, but I definitely answer that question the same way

[Texsox]

Same goes for most of the writers you've listed. One great work followed by minor works. Sinclair's "masterpiece" (which I don't think it is) is The Jungle. It's a good book, if not average. I don't know if I'd put Poe and Frost on that list. Poe was a terrible poet if I can say so without having read much poetry. He was also a short story writer, not a novelist. Frost, I mean, just too hokey to be taken seriously.

 

Twain, gotta respect Huck Finn. Most people probably don't know who Jack London is outside of The Call of the Wild. I've always hated that book but I understand the appeal.

 

I don't know, it just feels like the list you've compiled is the high-school catalogue.

 

Shakespeare wrote plays for a mostly illiterate population, so they are accessible to most High School students. I'd actually say being understood by that level, and enjoyed by adults, takes a great writer. Twain is on many critics list as the best American writer. His short stories are amazing, and he was the first American author of note to actually write using American regional dialects. Yes, high school kids can read Sawyer or Finn and enjoy a tale of kids playing on the river. Adults can read those same books and see the bigger tale of social justice, racial equality, and human frailties.

 

I also tend to include poetry and short stories into the mix.

 

In a kind of cruel paradox, having that "one pinnacle work" sometimes makes the rest of your work seem of lesser caliber. Most of these writers, on their worst day, produced works many times better then their contemporaries best days.

 

But where we really differ is where to draw the line on great. Out of the tens of thousands of American authors, I'm comfortable calling the top 50 or so great. I think it is also appropriate to factor in their influences on others.

 

Can we also tell I come from a program at a traditionally Hispanic University where non traditional works, especially by minorities is celebrated? I'm just not all that fascinated by dead white guys and their works.

[BobDylan]

Shakespeare wrote plays for a mostly illiterate population, so they are accessible to most High School students. I'd actually say being understood by that level, and enjoyed by adults, takes a great writer. Twain is on many critics list as the best American writer. His short stories are amazing, and he was the first American author of note to actually write using American regional dialects. Yes, high school kids can read Sawyer or Finn and enjoy a tale of kids playing on the river. Adults can read those same books and see the bigger tale of social justice, racial equality, and human frailties.

 

I also tend to include poetry and short stories into the mix.

 

In a kind of cruel paradox, having that "one pinnacle work" sometimes makes the rest of your work seem of lesser caliber. Most of these writers, on their worst day, produced works many times better then their contemporaries best days.

 

But where we really differ is where to draw the line on great. Out of the tens of thousands of American authors, I'm comfortable calling the top 50 or so great. I think it is also appropriate to factor in their influences on others.

 

Can we also tell I come from a program at a traditionally Hispanic University where non traditional works, especially by minorities is celebrated? I'm just not all that fascinated by dead white guys and their works.

 

I actually hate Shakespeare. I can't stand his books(plays). But his influence to literature is unparalleled.

 

The thing about the writers I call great, they have more than one great work. Shakespeare has several. Homer has two (The Iliad, The Odyssey). Joyce has three (Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses). Nabokov has two (Lolita, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle).

 

There are so many great books that I can't give the title to every author that has written a great book.

[BobDylan]

I think you should write, write, and then write some more... Now, to the more practical issue of how you will pay your bills, eat etc... that depends.

 

If you need to get a decent paying job right off the bat, look around in bigger companies, ie insurance or bigger law firms. You can probably find a receptionist job or something in the mail room, that will be a steady check with possible health insurance and the like.

 

You can also wait tables, that would help you meet a lot of interesting people to add fuel to your creative fire. Things like working at a bookstore or a movie theater cna give you more schedule flexability.

 

Travel if you can. Do Europe on the cheap.

 

Overall just have fun. I have a "career", but don't have a ton of bills or a family I'm responsible for so i take advantage of that. From September of last year until August of this year I will have gone to Vegas x3, Hawaii, Ireland and Portland, with weekend trips to my friends places on lakes mixed in. Enjoy yourself and don't spend a lot of time sweating the small stuff.

 

Traveling is an option. But I've always been terribly uncomfortable in foreign places (and I don't just mean outside of the U.S.) But I'm considering the option.

[Texsox]

I actually hate Shakespeare. I can't stand his books(plays). But his influence to literature is unparalleled.

 

The thing about the writers I call great, they have more than one great work. Shakespeare has several. Homer has two (The Iliad, The Odyssey). Joyce has three (Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses). Nabokov has two (Lolita, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle).

 

There are so many great books that I can't give the title to every author that has written a great book.

 

I would agree that it takes more than just one great book or we'd be looking at people like Margaret Mitchell. But by the same token then, to be a great "writer", the author should distinguish themselves by writing more than novels. But maybe splitting hairs and calling one a writer and the others novelists is probably a bit trivial and a side note not worth exploring. And I would again say that most of these writers wrote a number of great works, and one that was in the category of greatest of the greats.

 

And while great works, I would place many by the authors I mentioned ahead of Ada or Ardor and Dubliners. But as you noted earlier this is personal preference. While I respect Nabokov, he's one of those that I've never warmed up to. Although I have a great deal of respect for his body of work.

[WilliamTell]

I'm having the same problem, except I need to decide if I want to get my Masters in Public Administration. I'm tired of school but I'm sure it'd help me out in the long run being able to be a City Administrator in larger cities.

[Steve9347]

Since it's kind of on topic, I've been in my current position for two years, but tomorrow morning will be interviewing for the "next step" which will be a much more lucrative option and also 5 minutes away from home vs. the 45 I drive each way now.

 

Some one, for the love of God, wish me a bunch of luck!

[ptatc]

Since it's kind of on topic, I've been in my current position for two years, but tomorrow morning will be interviewing for the "next step" which will be a much more lucrative option and also 5 minutes away from home vs. the 45 I drive each way now.

 

Some one, for the love of God, wish me a bunch of luck!

 

:headbang Good Luck is always needed with interviews. :headbang

[WilliamTell]

Since it's kind of on topic, I've been in my current position for two years, but tomorrow morning will be interviewing for the "next step" which will be a much more lucrative option and also 5 minutes away from home vs. the 45 I drive each way now.

 

Some one, for the love of God, wish me a bunch of luck!

 

 

Sounds Awesome. Good Luck!!!!!!!!!

[lostfan]

What I do right now, which is a pretty decent career, is nothing like what I planned on doing 10 years ago.

[southsider2k5]

What I do right now, which is a pretty decent career, is nothing like what I planned on doing 10 years ago.

 

It very rarely is. I couldn't have imagined doing what I do now even a few years ago. That is why the college experience is so important, because you learn how to learn... You will be doing that for the rest of your life.

[lostfan]

It very rarely is. I couldn't have imagined doing what I do now even a few years ago. That is why the college experience is so important, because you learn how to learn... You will be doing that for the rest of your life.

I'm kind of backwards, college was kind of secondary to everything else. My college education is following my career instead of vice versa.

 

In h.s. I actually had an engineering internship that I could've followed through college if I wanted but instead I abruptly decided I hated it and it was boring. So then I thought, I'll just get a computer science degree, but then again I kind of spontaneously decided to join the Army. Then I thought... well screw it, once I get out I can make more money doing what I'm doing now than whatever I thought I'd be doing before, and the Army's gonna pay for my degree so... why not?

[southsider2k5]

I'm kind of backwards, college was kind of secondary to everything else. My college education is following my career instead of vice versa.

 

In h.s. I actually had an engineering internship that I could've followed through college if I wanted but instead I abruptly decided I hated it and it was boring. So then I thought, I'll just get a computer science degree, but then again I kind of spontaneously decided to join the Army. Then I thought... well screw it, once I get out I can make more money doing what I'm doing now than whatever I thought I'd be doing before, and the Army's gonna pay for my degree so... why not?

 

good for you for going back to school

[StrangeSox]

I actually hate Shakespeare. I can't stand his books(plays). But his influence to literature is unparalleled.

 

The thing about the writers I call great, they have more than one great work. Shakespeare has several. Homer has two (The Iliad, The Odyssey). Joyce has three (Dubliners, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses). Nabokov has two (Lolita, Ada or Ardor: A Family Chronicle).

 

There are so many great books that I can't give the title to every author that has written a great book.

 

I HATE James Joyce. That's my only input.

[Steve9347]

Just an update... they were so impressed they called me hours later and notified me that they'd be extending an offer.

 

THIS ROCKS.

Edited March 28, 2008 by Steve9347

[farmteam]

Congrats!