/lit/ - Literature

>>3625053
>Subcultures are where counterculture goes to die.

Indeed. But there are more interesting questions raised by this statement: Why does a given counterculture succumb to this fate? What are the determining factor or factors?

My hypothesis: Any countercultural group that relies on the economic machinery of the prevailing culture to provide for its basic material needs -- especially food -- is doomed to fade into subcultural status over the long run. There are two ways to avoid this fate. A counterculture can overtake the prevailing culture if its fundamental tenets spread far enough and fast enough to achieve critical mass among the population. Or it can survive independently of the prevailing culture if its members can find ways to sustainably provide for their needs without having to re-integrate into the prevailing culture.

>>3624080
>What groups or movements that exist today in America represent true counterculture?

I think the locavore and permaculture movements have the best chance of succeeding over the long run.

>>3500217
"...the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."
-- William Faulkner

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn." All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
-- Ernest Hemingway

"The mark of how good '"Huckleberry Finn" has to be is that one can compare it to a number of our best modern American novels and it stands up page for page, awkward here, sensational there - absolutely the equal of one of those rare incredible first novels that come along once or twice in a decade."
-- Norman Mailer

"I believe that Mark Twain had a clearer vision of life, that he came nearer to its elementals and was less deceived by its false appearances, than any other American who has ever presumed to manufacture generalizations, not excepting Emerson. I believe that he was the true father of our national literature, the first genuinely American artist of the royal blood."
-- H.L. Mencken

Mark Twain confirmed as the GOAT by other notable candidates for the position.