Pages

Wednesday, October 9, 2013

What does it mean to be "American?"

I am beyond excited.

Ironically, during the second time in American history when our government has shut down, I have been offered a position at a local college teaching, among other things, American Literature.

My textbooks

In the eight years it took to finish my masters degree, I read my share of European literature: A whole year of Shakespeare. Semesters with Ulysses, Madame Bovary, The Canterbury Tales. But my favorites were, by far, writers from small American hometowns like my own. Annie Dillard. Jack Kerouac. Gretel Ehrlich. Tom Robbins. Walt Whitman. e. e. cummings. Toni Morrison. Ernest Hemingway. Mark Twain.

Which got me thinking: what does it mean to be "American?"

There is an underlying sense of curiosity in American writing, a desire to turn over rocks to see what's underneath. Annie Dillard said, "I walk out; I see something, some event that would otherwise have been utterly missed and lost; or something sees me, some enormous power brushes me with its clean wing, and I resound like a beaten bell." She continues, "'Never lose a holy curiosity,' Einstein said; and so I lift my microscope down from the shelf, spread a drop of duck pond on a glass slide, and try to look spring in the eye," (Pilgrim at Tinker Creek).

There is certainly a penchant for unbridled freedom, self-reliance and a spirit that cannot be caged. Walt Whitman embodies this American spirit for freedom, "From this house I ordain myself loos'd of limits and imaginary lines,/ Going where I list, my own master total and absolute..." (Song of the Open Road). 

Being an American means having a wacky sense of humor and a simple good-natured desire to do good, "If you tell the truth, you do not need a good memory!" said Mark Twain (The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn).

It means, according to Jack Kerouac, living by the seat of our Levis: “...we all must admit that everything is fine and there's no need in the world to worry, and in fact we should realize what it would mean to us to UNDERSTAND that we're not REALLY worried about ANYTHING,” (On the Road). 

And pride in having dignity and principles, “Better to sleep in an uncomfortable bed free, than sleep in a comfortable bed unfree,” (On the Road). 

It's a certain rebellion: 

“To be nobody but
yourself in a world
which is doing its best day and night to make you like
everybody else means to fight the hardest battle
which any human being can fight and never stop fighting.” e. e. cummings


It might not pay a lot, but oh how excited I am to share these authors with others and to return to a classroom. And if American literature is a testament, somehow I think we Americans will survive, despite our government. :)