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/lit/ - Literature


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12066383 No.12066383 [Reply] [Original]

Any more books of foreigners on America? Dickens noted (in 1842) Americans were violent (especially toward slaves), distrustful of one another, overridden with commercialism, and not as clean as Britain (Americans like to spit).

>> No.12066436

>>12066383
Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville
Letters from an American Farmer by J. Hector St. John de Crèvecœur

>> No.12066466

>>12066383
So nothing has changed then.

>> No.12066476

>>12066383
All of these are good things.

>> No.12066493
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12066493

This was a good read. Plenty of praise and critique of the country. Lots of humor and some remarks that seemed quite current.

>> No.12066537

>tfw people don't realize America hasn't changed in 200 years

>> No.12066552

>>12066537
>Implying that's true.
>Implying that's a bad thing.
>Implying it needs to.
>Implying this is unique to America.

>> No.12067692
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12067692

>>12066383
Pic'd is a good one. For a sympathetic look at ww2 era American culture from a Brit: D. W. Brogan's The American Character.

>> No.12069848

Moberg's series on Swedes emigrating to America in 1850 is among the best things I have ever read. The Emigrants (not to be confused by the book by Sebald)

>> No.12069852
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12069852

Hated it so much he became a nazi.

>> No.12069857
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12069857

>> No.12070022

>>12069857
Really a good book.

>> No.12070096

The American Scene by Henry James

>> No.12070102

Any books on why the world is O B S E S S E D with the usa?

>> No.12070124

>>12070102
Read Proust. The USA is Madam Verdurin. There's just no stopping her; and yes, she'll destroy everything.
The abbreviated formula of this debacle can be found in the Bible.

>> No.12070125

Tocqueville is definitely the best

>> No.12070139
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12070139

>>12066383
For the sake of contrast, begin with this.

>> No.12070542

>>12066383
pic related was the master

>> No.12071595

>>12070096
Henry James was an American. He wrote that book after having lived in Europe for a lengthy period.

>> No.12071661

>>12066383
Unironically, Lolita. You can see some commentary on American culture (especially academic) in other Nabokov books like Pnin as well. Idk if there's any good English translations of this or not but Aldanov's Live as You Please (пo-pyccки: Живи кaк хoчeшь). Also Kosinski gets into some American themes in with Steps and even more so in The Devil Tree.

>> No.12072343
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12072343

>>12066383
>Americans like to spit
You don't say.

>> No.12072388
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12072388