tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post3442806985119212761..comments2024-02-06T16:17:25.826+00:00Comments on THE GRĂNMARK BLOG: Book Report, Part 2: How I climbed a literary peak and criss-crossed America with Dean MoriartyScott Gronmarkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-78587363435948186732017-05-01T00:03:52.181+01:002017-05-01T00:03:52.181+01:00To be fair to Leavis, he and his wife did eventual...To be fair to Leavis, he and his wife did eventually change their minds. In "Dickens the Novelist", published in 1970, they stated "Our purpose is to enforce as unanswerably as possible the conviction that Dickens was one of the greatest of creative writers . . ." Phew!<br /><br />As for wishing I'd read "On the Road" while travelling across America, it's just that the book i had with me - Henry Miller's "Air-Conditioned Nightmare" - was utterly dismissive of rural America and snootily pro-European, while "On the Road" presents an entirely more sympathetic view of flyover country.<br /><br />I may have to add "Don Quixote" to the list on your recommendation - I've studiously avoided it until now, but I heard part of an old Radio 4 adaptation of it recently and rather enjoyed it.Scott Gronmarkhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15118026157459333174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2215553202978284468.post-25455201922780852782017-04-12T06:18:58.476+01:002017-04-12T06:18:58.476+01:00when you say you wished you had read Kerouac durin...when you say you wished you had read Kerouac during your US trip, presumably you mean for the cognitive evocations of American peoples and places it would generate rather than being strung out on whatever took those boys fancy.<br />A six pack of Coors watching baseball on TV in a down town hotel is one thing...<br />On The Road has its moments of magic.Huckleberry Finn even more so.The Mississippi becomes a symbol of life and transition or I think that's what it said on the jacket cover.<br />In a way it's a pity there are no great works of art to accompany the narrative.The thing about even older classics is turning each page and 'seeing' flashes of The great Spanish or French Masters-Daumier principally comes to mind in a classic that you have shamed me in to revisiting in the nicest possible way.Twenty-five books is beyond me but I may give Don Quixote another read;it was mind-blowing the first time.<br />Dickens too will get a look in.A bit of a shame on the Leavis school of thought here-perhaps he was too much the populist for the Great Man.<br />Thanks for a great post-look forward to periodic updates.southern mannoreply@blogger.com