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Steinbeck

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Pete

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Aug 21, 2012, 6:08:15 AM8/21/12
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How come no-one told me about John Steinbeck?! Oh God - he writes
beautifully.

Finished Cannery Row and Grapes of Wrath. East of Eden is sitting there
waiting.

Yes - yes. There'll be a usage question or two along shortly. But God.

Peter(UK)

Don Phillipson

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Aug 21, 2012, 8:31:52 AM8/21/12
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"Pete" <Pe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:XnsA0B6714C2...@81.171.92.236...

> How come no-one told me about John Steinbeck?!

You probably had the benefit of high school education by
teachers who were socially very enlightened (about race,
gender, history etc.) but did not themselves read for pleasure.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)



Pete

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Aug 21, 2012, 6:20:50 PM8/21/12
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"Don Phillipson" <e9...@SPAMBLOCK.ncf.ca> wrote in news:k0vv43$k4k$3
@speranza.aioe.org:

> "Pete" <Pe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
> news:XnsA0B6714C2...@81.171.92.236...
>
>> How come no-one told me about John Steinbeck?!
>
> You probably had the benefit of high school education by
> teachers who were socially very enlightened (about race,
> gender, history etc.) but did not themselves read for pleasure.

No. Quite the reverse. But I don't remember them mentioning any US
literature apart from Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn - which we read -
and poetry.

But what you say is certainly true of my *children's* teachers, or
perhaps of our National Curriculum. Angelou, Duffy, The Wide Sargasso Sea
and To Kill a Mockingbird are pretty much unavoidable!

I can't really blame anyone for my late discovery of Steinbeck. It's just
odd that over the years no friend has ever thrust Cannery Row at me.

Peter(UK)

Frederick Williams

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Aug 22, 2012, 7:54:06 AM8/22/12
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I have no recollection of Steinbeck being mentioned when I was at school
(in the sixties). An American author that I do recall being expected to
read was Jack London, the work being White Fang which I didn't enjoy. I
read The Winter of Our Discontent in my teens, I think it was my sister
who recommended Steinbeck to me, though maybe not that particular work.

--
The animated figures stand
Adorning every public street
And seem to breathe in stone, or
Move their marble feet.

graham

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Aug 22, 2012, 1:42:39 PM8/22/12
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"Pete" <Pe...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:XnsA0B6714C2...@81.171.92.236...
>
I started with GofW when I was a post-grad about 47 years ago. Couldn't put
it down. EofE is a much "easier" read.
Graham


Robin Bignall

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Aug 22, 2012, 3:39:45 PM8/22/12
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"The Grapes of Wrath" stunned me when I was in my early teens. How
could one set of Americans treat another set like that? Then, later, I
read "Andersonville" (not, of course, one of Steinbeck's) and was even
more horrified.
--
Robin Bignall
(BrE)
Herts, England

graham

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Aug 22, 2012, 4:01:41 PM8/22/12
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"Robin Bignall" <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
news:s5da385h19du75mvg...@4ax.com...
-------------------------
ISTR readingthat Vivien Leigh was reading it while shooting "Gone with the
wind" and was equally horrified and embarassed that she was living in a
"cocoon".


Don Phillipson

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Aug 22, 2012, 7:18:42 PM8/22/12
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"Frederick Williams" <freddyw...@btinternet.com> wrote in message
news:5034C85E...@btinternet.com...

> I have no recollection of Steinbeck being mentioned when I was at school
> (in the sixties).

This seems extraordinary. English-language Nobel laureates
usually enjoy increased sales as an immediate result, and Steinbeck
won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1962. It was very bad luck to
belong to a school where this did not register at all.

Pete

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Aug 22, 2012, 11:02:27 PM8/22/12
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"graham" <g.st...@shaw.ca> wrote in
news:mS8Zr.2292$Ys2....@newsfe10.iad:
Well I wish you'd told me about him back then! No, I couldn't put it down
either. I'm delaying picking up EofE because I'm still digesting GofW. Or
enjoying the aftertaste or something.

Thanks.

P.

Pete

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Aug 23, 2012, 5:48:07 AM8/23/12
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Robin Bignall <docr...@ntlworld.com> wrote in
news:s5da385h19du75mvg...@4ax.com:
Yes. And it's recent history, or seems it to me.

The calamitous actions of the banks, the obsession with economic growth,
the widening gulf between rich and poor: *some* of it is familiar
enough, eh?

> Then, later, I
> read "Andersonville" (not, of course, one of Steinbeck's) and was even
> more horrified.

I needed to look it up, I'm afraid.

Peter(UK)

tony cooper

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Aug 23, 2012, 11:13:08 PM8/23/12
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The Camp Sumter Military Prison at Andersonville operated for 14
months starting in 1864 during our Civil War. It had comparable
conditions to the Prison Hulks in use in the UK up until 1857.

Let's not have finger-pointing.
--
Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida

Pete

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Aug 24, 2012, 11:52:07 AM8/24/12
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tony cooper <tony.co...@gmail.com> wrote in
news:m0sd38p6c5i2fiv6p...@4ax.com:
Who are you speaking to? I turned the conversation away from Americans
and towards banks and inequality: a UK problem as much as, or more than
it is, a US one. I wasn't particularly interested in reading the book
about the American civil war military prison as it was the quality of
Steinbeck's writing that I was excited about: not man's inhumanity, of
which - yes - there are plenty of examples in our own history.

Peter(UK)

abc

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Aug 26, 2012, 3:34:03 AM8/26/12
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Thanks for that. Prompted by your post I just plunged into Cannery Row
read the first page, and yes, God.

I did read Grapes of Wrath years ago when it was recommended to me but
can only remember it as rather heavy reading. I must have been too young
to appreciate it then.

Thanks to you I'll be giving Steinbeck another whirl now.

abc

Pete

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Aug 27, 2012, 10:52:22 PM8/27/12
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abc <a...@abc.net> wrote in news:k1cjhc$2gf$1...@news.albasani.net:
Oh Good. I'm delighted. Take the day off work and just read all day! I'm
a bit envious of you just starting it. I wonder if you'd had it on a
shelf for years, as I had.

Yes - I would have felt the same way about GofW if I had read it when I
was young.

Recommend me something.

Peter(UK)

Robin Bignall

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Aug 28, 2012, 1:05:46 AM8/28/12
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Cannery Row has a sequel that I can't remember this time of night.

Frederick Williams

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Aug 28, 2012, 11:40:02 AM8/28/12
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Robin Bignall wrote:

> Cannery Row has a sequel that I can't remember this time of night.

Is it Sweet Thursday?

(I'm glad it's not Thursday Sweet, for had I written "Is it Thursday
Sweet?" you would have had to reply "No, it's Tuesday, darling.")

Robin Bignall

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Aug 28, 2012, 4:54:52 PM8/28/12
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On Tue, 28 Aug 2012 16:40:02 +0100, Frederick Williams
<freddyw...@btinternet.com> wrote:

>Robin Bignall wrote:
>
>> Cannery Row has a sequel that I can't remember this time of night.
>
>Is it Sweet Thursday?
>
Yes.

>(I'm glad it's not Thursday Sweet, for had I written "Is it Thursday
>Sweet?" you would have had to reply "No, it's Tuesday, darling.")

OK, I won't call you this weekend, sugar.
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