Random Thought of the Day

The secret of the great American novel is that there isn't one. Or, rather, that there isn't just one. Instead, there are a myriad of great novels to be written. Each speaking to its own time, it's own place, and its own subculture. Whether it's the rum runners in Prohibition era Chicago or the surfers in idyllic California in the summer of love. Each with its own concerns, its own narratives, that are mutually contradictory with at least a percentage of other groups, so each book has to be tailored to the narrow rather than the broad band. But while that leaves us without a manual of style to guide our culture, it makes us a much better nation. Because the beauty of America is the flexibility of its system. How new groups can form, rise, fall, and disintegrate without destabilizing the whole. That churning cauldron of styles and philosophies and niches is what gives the country its strength.