American literature is to european culture what 'Meet the Spartans' is to Zack Snyder's '300'.There is a severe lack of nuance and a vastly underwhelming understanding of life, which speaks to the type of rustic, frontier civilization the USA was when compared to the mature, often grim reality of industrializing Europe. It is like americans do not understand the european literature, and can only connect to it on surface level. I went in a reading binge of american literature last year, and I can summarize it:>cowboys and hillbillies >we want the Jane Austen audience >literal parody of european masterpiece >remember slavery?>GenX pseudo-existential drivel>urban noveau rich pump tale that got taken too seriously America could never have had a Dostoevski or a Proust. The idea that an american could write books that are, in essence, the author wrestling with various demons of his life having an arduous debate over his troubled soul is too much. Japanese literature, in its relatively shorter span that it has been diffused in the West, is much more akin to european tradition. American literature, much like its civilization, is still in its infancy, while uncontrollably claiming that they should sit with the grown-ups.**
>>25088004Thats because we Americans have a sense of humor while Europeans do not.
>>25088682Sense of humor is the greatest sign of an untested mind.
>>25088745shut the fuck up retard
>>25088004It is actually the opposite, modern Euro lit is infested with the knowledge they have been surpassed, overlooked, forgotten by American innovation, industry and growth. We run world culture (Koreans are but a blip and thank us for not being North Korean). Our Lit is about taming the harsh land through hard work. And the world loves us for it.
