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Re: Melville, Goethe, and more
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CHW: Following through on Suellen’s mentions of Melville, Pierre, and Ada, and with the aid of her very stimulating essay The Weed Exiles the Flower, I have become immersed in Pierre. ...Pierre’s ancestry seems to me to include, as does much of Poe, something of the late C18th English Gothic: it appears to me quite un-American, but “American” requires definition. ..Thinking casually about immigrants from the Old World, who came totally to embody and project American personae, I thought of Gary Cooper, Cary Grant, Bob Hope [all English-born]....
JM: I don't know what you mean by "American personae". Would Gore Vidal fit? Immigrants, and I was now reminded of Willa Cather ( although I only read "My Antonia"), while still keeping a nostalgic foot in their countries of origin, react to the new environment according to its landscape, language and culture and the result, if we think of those who chose America, cannot be considered as anything else as "American". Take Shade, for example...
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