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A review by michaelacabus
Creationists: Selected Essays: 1993-2006 by E.L. Doctorow
5.0
Why is there such a strong anti-intellectual strain in America? America seems forever fixated on emotion, and that fixation discourages deepening wisdom. The hurry to do something makes the delay of developing a philosophy almost sinful.
It's just a hypothesis, and books like the Creationists try to slow time down, briefly, to offer testimonials in favour of American intellectual life.
It's not an easy task, but Doctorow succeeds by giving it to us in all its messiness. At heart this book is about the act of artistic creation (anti-evolutionists were bound to be disappointed). It's a life outside of life, a choice that means everything, in ways other choices do not.
To be reminded that Americans can claim that messy experimental novel Moby Dick; that we can claim the mystic and reclusive Poe; that we've a history of pushing up against racism even as we seemed to accept it (as imperfect as that effort has been), this matters because it offers some identity we can point to beyond the surface level awareness, full of misinformation, we seem unable to escape.
Having a literary tradition is not icing; it's the feast, the wine, the beauty of life. The rest is as Austen said, busy nothings.
Let's have more of these books. And a tradition worth reflecting on.
If you're reading this, I suppose it continues with you and me. Welcome, have a seat.
A+
It's just a hypothesis, and books like the Creationists try to slow time down, briefly, to offer testimonials in favour of American intellectual life.
It's not an easy task, but Doctorow succeeds by giving it to us in all its messiness. At heart this book is about the act of artistic creation (anti-evolutionists were bound to be disappointed). It's a life outside of life, a choice that means everything, in ways other choices do not.
To be reminded that Americans can claim that messy experimental novel Moby Dick; that we can claim the mystic and reclusive Poe; that we've a history of pushing up against racism even as we seemed to accept it (as imperfect as that effort has been), this matters because it offers some identity we can point to beyond the surface level awareness, full of misinformation, we seem unable to escape.
Having a literary tradition is not icing; it's the feast, the wine, the beauty of life. The rest is as Austen said, busy nothings.
Let's have more of these books. And a tradition worth reflecting on.
If you're reading this, I suppose it continues with you and me. Welcome, have a seat.
A+