Best American Essays of the [20th] Century (1)

Best American Essays of the Century
Editors: Oates and Atwan
Boston, New York: Houghton Mifflin Company
2000

Why read it? The essays are in chronological order, from Mark Twain's "Corn-Pone Opinions," 1901, to Saul Bellow's "Graven Images" in 1997. If you expect these essays to be pleasant, comforting and fun to read, you are mistaken. Joyce Carol Oates, one of the editors of the book, says, "My belief is that art should not be comforting; for comfort, we have mass entertainment, and one another. Art should provoke, disturb, arouse our emotions, expand our sympathies in directions we may not anticipate and may not even wish." Most of these essays provoke. Many of them I had never read, but they paint a vivid portrait of the twentieth century.

I plan to summarize five essays at a time.

Essays 1 -5:

Mark Twain. "Corn-Pone Opinions." 1901. The source of most men's ideas is in imitation of others' ideas.

W.E.B. DuBois: "Of the Coming of John." 1903. John, a young black man, has been educated to think and to question. When he returns home to the South from college, he is met by the stone wall of prejudice. [A touching drama of the black experience in America. RayS.]

Henry Adams. "A Law of Acceleration." 1906. The complexity of the modern world as bombs and knowledge double in power and ideas every ten years, leading to unresolvable contradictions. [A "classical" Future Shock, by Alvin Toffler. RayS.]

William James. "The Moral Equivalent of War." 1910. William James suggests that the "moral equivalent of war" would be universal service for young people in the country's behalf. Young people would be "drafted" to be trained to work in mines, on highways, etc. Thus the military virtues--the conceptions of order and discipline, the tradition of service and devotion, of physical fitness, unstinted exertion, and universal responsibility, which universal military duty is now teaching--would be preserved without war. [I wonder if the ideas in this essay influenced John F. Kennedy when he suggested the Peace Corps. Harry S. Truman suggested universal service after WWII. Couldn't get it through Congress. RayS. ]

Randolph Bourne. "The Handicapped." 1911. The inner thoughts of a disabled person. He analyzes his condition, the responses of others to him, and understands that his disability has advantages as well as disadvantages. He insists especially on developing and recognizing his individuality as opposed to the belief of those whom he encounters that disabled people do not have the potential for success as do the healthy. [A remarkably contemporary essay. RayS.]

To be continued.