Americans are underrated

Vladimir Nabokov is the greatest American writer of all time. The lesser countries wish they had half the talent as we.

Boy, do I have news for you...

Haha yap. Formally he was an American who wrote in English but sentimentally he was still a Euro that despised the US and everything it's supposed to represent.

Burroughs????

Naked lunch is that good?

I don’t see Henry James on here

lmao

>Arthur C. Clarke
>American

That's because you and I are the only two patrician enough to be reading Henry James

Yeah of course. Orwell, Nabokov were also American

You're kidding right? Some of these are considered as some of the most influential writers ever. Ignore Yea Forums's unhealthy meme autism, it's not a reflection of real life.

Rulfo and García Márquez were also American

Are YOU fucking serious ?

dull storytelling. decent prose. don't see the appeal.

Well yeah, that's unironically true

>No Henry James
>No Gaddis
>No Nabokov
>No Faulkner
>No Vidal
>No Salinger
>DeeEfDubayou
At least based Gass is on here

people have different taste

who's the guy with glasses above Gass?

they were from the Americas, so yes.

Nabokov is not really American enough.

>founds academic psychology

Attached: William_James_b1842c.jpg (527x675, 173K)

The *average* American, irrespective of class, isn't really in continuity with his or her literary past. I don't think most Europeans are saying Americans have no interesting writers or aspects to their past cultures, but what they're mocking is America's increasing libertinism and pseudointellectual cultural climate. Granted, there are many educated and creative Americans, sure. It's a country with a population of 300 million after all. You are bound to find a few good people here and there, but it still rare.

>It's just European inferiority complex that made us all believe American lit (and culture) is trash.
I mean, Gatsby was alright.

He is definitely an American writer and wrote in English and he saw himself that way as well

you can say the same about any European novel of the 20th century

Even Nabokov could make it on that list, and could be considered as american as the rest of those, but the thing is, america is not really a country or a culture, anybody can be an american, and there are no rules that determine who is american and who isnt. There are no american genes, every aspect of their culture and habits they inherited from the countries they fled from, so they have no heritage or a basis for their nations existence, which renders the whole idea of "american literature" useless, because it's not really american

lol... no

Put John Varley on that list.

and that’s a good thing??

He came to the US at age 45, and spoke like a Russian attempting to speak English. He didn't speak like an American. I've even heard to some Mexican or Asian immigrants who sound more American than him. And just because you say you are something doesn't mean you actually are (e.g. trannies or me being the king of the world). You only claim him because he was a good writer.

How many brits or greeks are in continuity with their literary past? Take off those rose-tinted glasses.

Continental Europe I mean. Britain and Ireland are their own thing.

In my view, in order to properly be called a respective member of such and such country, you need at least six to seven generations of unbroken patrilineal continuity to said country. Otherwise, you are not of that country. This is why race mixing is very bad.

Much more than the average American, believe it or not. The average American is unbelievably retarded and ignored. This is indisputable.

>six to seven generations
Try twenty

Six to seven is sufficient, dumb ass.

Where that nigga emerson

brits, french etc are very in tune with literary legacies. european countries are always set in their ways. american culture (and by extension the average american) is very influenced by hollywood/pop culture, and doesn't really have that unwavering view to history that is usually a product of the mindset of a citizen of an old country

Yikes

>Melville
>Hawthorne
>Stowe
>Fenimore Cooper
>Poe
>Whitman
>Twain
>James
>Dreiser
>Lovecraft
>Frost
>Fitzgerald
>Pound
>Hemingway
>Steinbeck
>Hurston
>Hughes
>O'Neill
>Miller
>Williams
>Baldwin
>Wolfe
>Cather
>Hansberry
>Capote
>Lee
>Salinger
>Mailer
>Kerouac
>Ginsberg
>Burroughs
>Kesey
>Toole
>Pynchon
>Vonnegut
>Roth
>DeLillo
>Dick
>Barth
>Morrison
>Barthelme
>McCarthy
>Wallace

Holy fuck, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It's not even close. The United States hasn't even been a country for 250 years yet and our literary canon is better than any European, Asian, African, or American nation.

>yet our literary canon is better than any european nation

Attached: 905.jpg (346x250, 8K)

>Gaddis too (forgot him)

That being said, 21st century US culture is just getting sickening at this point. If you ever want to be depressed and lose all hope for the future of the world, just go read the comments on a normiecon US-"patriot" meme page.

Name one.

Britain, Greece, France, all arguably. America has definitely put out a huge amount of culture in its lifespan, only really beaten by britain and less definitively france in the same periods.

If people continued to follow his lead it would be.

Seventy-five percent of this list is writers who are still in copyright. That means they've been memed for decades by American publishing houses who know it's EXTREMELY profitable to convince the public that a writer in their stable is a "classic." The marketing departments of these places spend a lot of energy, money and time doing this. It's not a coincidence that so many of the American novels people consider "modern classics" were bestsellers. To Kill a Mockingbird, Catch-22, The Naked and the Dead. They came out, they sold, and then they and their authors were memed as classics so they would keep selling. It's as simple as that.

You might say it's critics who make classics, not marketing departments. Only partially true. Critics can't shill a book they haven't heard of. These marketers don't get paid to do nothing, and the extent of their influence isn't limited to ad campaigns. What do you think "buzz" is? It's marketers shilling the book to critics and book stores so they can shill it to you. Then they shill it to the awards people. Then they get it on high-school and college reading lists. They make sure it's not forgotten when it comes time for best-of lists. They get it on the "Modern Classics" table at Barnes & Noble. They put out anniversary editions; they call magazines ("Hey, it's the anniversary. Think you might want to write a retrospective?"). It's. All. Marketing.

One can't confidently say "these are a nation's canonical writers" when 75% of those writers are PRODUCTS backed by modern marketing machines. When the copyrights run out, and nobody owns these names, then we'll see which ones stick around and which ones fade away.

>no Faulkner
...user

Europoor cope

I'm American.

>Stowe
>Fenimore Cooper
>Hurston
>Hughes
>O'Neill
>Cather
>Hansberry
literally who
>Lee
Harper Lee?? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA she wrote one decent book and it's a literal Faulkner ripoff
>Kerouac
>Ginsberg
Total memes not worth more than a three-day old dog turd.
>Morrison
>Baldwin
Pfff imagine having such a shit canon that you have include diversity quotas and subpar writers.

Other than that pretty good, I must admit. Still nowhere near Europe, though. But pretty good for a young nation.

I consider Pnin and Pale Fire as American novels but don't think of Nabokov as American, as he didn't either. He was a displaced Russian with an Oxbridge cant.

All shit

That's quite an exaggeration. Faulkner, Steineck, Melville, and James are objectively good writers, if not great.

somebody post the chart

>literally who
The fact that you haven't even heard of a single one of those writers renders your opinions worthless and your takes dilettante-tier at best
>Total memes not worth more than a three-day old dog turd.
Why didn't you just tell us you never read a single thing by these authors?

Donald Barthelme

Russia, Germany, France, Britain, and arguably Italy
Yeah you have only been a country for a while, but have you considered the fact that you have 3x the population of literally any European country?
Have you considered that the era in which US was a country has produced good literature at by far the biggest rate in history? You know that demographic explosion exists? Have you seen how much literacy rates have increased?

I love Kerouac and Ginsberg, but that other list was honestly mostly a list of incredibly simplistic and uninspired authors that should be avoided and is only popular because they appeal to the mainstream public's taste (with the exceptions of O'Neill and I haven't read anything by Cather)

Isn’t that the same with all classics though? I mean, the philosophy departments of Europe shilled a ton of shit, do you think Aquinas would be as popular as he is without the Catholic Church or Aristotle without Alexander the Great and so on?

>Aristotle without Alexander the Great
Yes.

Only American like Americans. Notice how people from countries that are not the US and not Europe always think that Europe has better writers?
btw I live in Switzerland and earn more than you

congrats you live in an affluent yet soulless country where people are indifferent and neutral not only to what happens to whoever lives outside of its borders but also to each other.

I'm a leaf and Americans >>> Eurocucks (not incl. Russia)

embarrassing

topkektopodes, so nobody alive right now is american

Most Americans cant point to any country on a map. They have no books, no philosophers past Jewish infiltrators, and no history. They will be remembered for the wars they lost and the guns they made.

>jews don't count
what did user mean by this

Cope more, amerifag
Canada is literally America

American culture is trash though

Only negro one

Found the mutt

90s rap is the apex of American music

>>>int
Go Back CHIscum

And if it isn’t, jazz is one of Americas best inventions, largely created and expanded by black musicians.