Beyond Americana
These are memories, packaged, dusted, shrink-wrapped, and worn. How strange are they for the man to whom they belonged?
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Posts Tagged: America
The Little Tolls and Pitfalls of Modern American Racism
Abigail Fisher, a 22-year old white girl, a graduate of LSU, just pleaded to the Supreme court that the University of Texas rejected her four years ago because of affirmative action.
UT says they’d have rejected her no matter her race; regardless, her suit might lead the Supreme Court to forbid the practice.
...moreSongs of Our Lives: Simon & Garfunkel’s “America”
It’s Christmas morning, 2001 and I’m fifteen. I unwrap a record player, but am more immediately captivated by the record collection that comes with it.
Cities and You
The Atlantic recently ran an article entitled “Why Americans Love Chain Stores: A Psychological Perspective,” and not only does it break down our metropolitan American tendencies, but it explains them in terms of our psychological issues.
Our ideals about American independence give way to our obsession with chain stores.
...moreFinal Dispatch from the Great Mistakes Tour
The third leg of comic Kyle Kinane’s Great Mistakes Tour has been officially documented. This part of Isaac and Kyle’s foray into the expansive American landscape includes Sioux Falls and Omaha, more Taco Bell and one sentimental, applause-filled coda to the tour.
Gay Marriage for America
Love and the pursuit of happiness were the impetus for Andrew Sullivan’s move from the UK to America. He wrote a beautiful essay for Newsweek on the benefits of gay marriage for straight America.
With our “inalienable human rights” being deeply intertwined with what it means to be part of this country, it should follow that Americans should have the right to choose who they love and thereby marry.
...morePercival Everett on Franzen, Sexism and The Great American Novel
“I do not believe that apparent authoritative literary voices of validation would ever make such a grand claim about a novel written by a woman. I say this because I believe there are many novels by women that are about the same sort of world as presented in Freedom. Sadly, the culture usually calls these books domestic or family sagas. Are the novels of Anne Tyler, Marilynne Robinson and Mona Simpson any less white and middle “American” than Franzen”
At VIDA, author Percival Everett explores the big assumptions and unpsoken prejudices behind Great American Novels (like Freedom.) (Via)
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