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I love John Steinbeck

by andersone

John Steinbeck is a master of American Letters. A pulitzer for The Grapes of Wrath, a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962, and his inclusion (by most) in the canon of western literature are obvious testaments to the quality of his Oeuvre. However, just because he is considered a writer of classics, and of literature does not mean he is dry, or stuffy, or esoteric.

He writes with great humor and tenderness for the less fortunate. His satire is at once biting and gentle for the rogues in our society. He understands what it is to be American.

Why waste so much time reading my prose? Let's read some of his instead. Consider this passage from Cannery Row:

"Someone should write an erudite essay on the moral, physical and esthetic effect of the Model T Ford on the American Nation. Two generations of Americans knew more about the Ford coil than the clitoris, about the planetary system of gears than the solar system of stars. With the Model T, part of the concept of private property disappeared. Pliers ceased to be privately owned and a tire pump belonged to the last man who had picked it up. Most of the babies of the period were conceived in Model T Fords and not a few were born in them. The theory of the Anglo Saxon home became so warped that it never quite recovered."

Read that aloud: you can feel the cadence of the language he uses. Look at it again: you can see the analogies, the imagery, the humor. Steinbeck is a master.

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