[quote=equalizer][quote=Allan from Fallbrook][quote=equalizer]
This may be my faux pas for mentionion it, but did you reveal your sympathies with proletariat class with Upton Sinclair/ Sinclair Lewis Freudian slip? So melancholy, can’t we get an Updike reference once?[/quote]
Equalizer: Excellent catch there, bub. Wow, my Freudian slip is showing, isn’t it?
I actually like both authors very much, and, speaking of religious hypocrisy and mass manipulation (a la Glenn Beck, though he’s fading fast, thank God), we should also mention “Elmer Gantry” as a must read. Excellent book (and a good movie, too, with Burt Lancaster) and just as relevant today.[/quote]
Haven’t read the book, but Lancaster was just amazing in the movie. Can’t believe it was published in 1927; doubt it would be published today.[/quote]
I missed out on most of this excellent Piggsfest, but feel compelled to add my two cents to the Upton Sinclair/Sinclair Lewis admiration expressed here (Allan, I should have know that there was a literary reason behind the fact that you make me hot.)
I, too, really admire the writings of both authors. I can remember first hearing about them both when we were learning about the early labor movement in 4th grade. I read my first Lewis at age 14: a little gem he wrote in 1947 called “Kingsblood Royal”. I was most assuredly hooked, and have read many more of his novels and short stories since then, some of them a few times over.
Lewis was extremely popular following the release of “Main Street” in 1920, and followed that up with some his most famous works over the remainder of the decade (which many feel has a lot in common with our just-completed 2000 to 2010 period): “Arrowsmith” (won the first Nobel Peace Prize for literature), “Babbitt”, “Dodsworth”, and “Elmer Gantry”. Many of these were made into films in the 1930s; the best (& my personal fave) is William Wyler and Samuel Goldwyn’s collaboration on “Dodsworth”. Unsurpassed performances by Walter Huston (Anjelica’s grandfather) and Ruth Chatterton.
Equalizer, all of Lewis’s better-known books are in print today, including “Elmer Gantry”. Read the book; I think it’s much better than the movie. I have the highest degree of admiration for Lancaster, but felt his portrayal was almost a caricature (I wasn’t nuts about Richard Brooks’ direction).
As for something that couldn’t get published today, try Lewis’s “It Can’t Happen Here”. It’s available on Amazon. Worthwhile. And I don’t mean to upset or insult anyone, but Ayn Rand is not anywhere close to being in this guy’s class. I can understand the appeal of her books, but……no.
Allan, giggled at your Glenn Beck reference. It’s pretty telling when you’ve dialed the crazy up too high even for Fox News’s comfort.
My understanding is that GB’s taking time off to build and star in a Mormon-themed Atlas Shrugged amusement park, complete with a Book of Revelations Apocalypse Reenactment dinner theater.
