The shooting took place in the roof garden of the Madison Square Garden on 26th street, a spectacular block-long building of black and yellow terracotta that White himself had designed in the Sevillian style. Thaw was the husband of Evelyn Nesbitt, the celebrated beauty who had once been Stanford White's mistress. Thaw, eccentric scion of a coke and railroad fortune. In New York City the papers were full of the shooting of the famous architect Stanford White by Harry K. One read between the lines of the journals and gazettes. Stories were hushed up and reporters paid off by rich families. Runaway women died in the rigors of ecstasy. Across America sex and death were barely distinguishable. Odd things went on in lighthouses and in shacks nestled in the wild beach plum. There were unexplained shipwrecks and brave towline rescues. It gave the sea a heavy dull menace and shone coldly on the rocks and shores of the New England coast. A certain light was still available along the Eastern seaboard. This was the time in our history when Winslow Homer was doing his painting. I'll leave off with an excerpt from the opening chapter that I hope illustrate Ragtime's character and quality: The story brings them into contact with the more recent immigrants: Jews, African-Americans and famous figures such as Houdini - Europeans who have come to America.Īll the cultural, political, racial, economic and class tension of these various groups is explored over the novel's ensuing story, and as I don't want to enter spoiler territory I'll just say I think it's a damned fine novel and a remarkable exercise in how big scope doesn't require a big novel. The main characters are the default Americans, white and wealthy, the immigrants who have become the new natives. Thus we have Houdini reflecting on the nature of fame and success, Freud as the European tourist par excellence, etc.Īrguably the main theme of the novel is that of immigration and race. These characters are not in the main simply thrown or name-dropped into the novel, but are used to illustrate and provide perspectives which the nominal main characters can not. Others include Sigmund Freud, JP Morgan, Henry Ford, Booker T Washington, Archduke Ferdinand, and many, many more. The book is littered with appearances from historical figures, most notably and sympathetically Harry Houdini, who is the subject of several chapters. Ragtime is nominally the story of a wealthy white New York family - but it quickly becomes apparent they are just a vehicle for a wider exploration of American politics, business, race, sex, family, history and identity. I wanted to draw the attention of /r/literature readers to a book which I believe accomplishes much of the gravity of the above in a relatively bite-sized length - Ragtime, by E L Doctorow Typically these books involve large casts of characters, jump across large periods of time and result in door-stoppingly weighty books. Whilst I'm a Brit, I immediately tend to think of the likes of Delillo's Underworld, Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath, and various others that tend to fit a category we often think of as the Great American Novel. There is a category of fiction that deals with the epic, zeitgeist-y nature of a country and its people, that aims to say something about what that country's character is and what its values are, and does the above while framed in the context of real events or real people. Check out /r/AskLiteraryStudies if you have questions about literature and literary studies that you'd like answered by experts! All are welcome.Spoilers must be marked by an alert and obscured with Reddit editor's spoiler masking system. Please do not seek feedback or instruction on your writing.ĭo not submit videos vaguely related to literature. This includes written work, social media, medium, youtube, apps, or any other material. This includes posting surveys.ĭo not submit any form of advertising or self-promotion. Content: Do not submit posts that contain questions and no other content.ĭo not request help on homework assignments (students) or curriculum content (teachers). Analysis: Submissions must include poster's own analysis in either the body or the comments of a post. Relevance: Submissions must relate to literature, literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, or literary news. We are not /r/books: please do not use this sub to seek book recommendations or homework help. Discussions of literary criticism, literary history, literary theory, and critical theory are also welcome. Welcome to /r/literature, a community for deeper discussions of plays, poetry, short stories, and novels.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |