{"id":15728,"date":"2012-10-01T01:25:57","date_gmt":"2012-10-01T05:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/?p=15728"},"modified":"2012-10-01T06:44:16","modified_gmt":"2012-10-01T10:44:16","slug":"lunacy-and-sorrow-and-the-great-american-album","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lunacy-and-sorrow-and-the-great-american-album\/","title":{"rendered":"Lunacy and Sorrow* and The Great American Album"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe class='youtube-player youtuber' type='text\/html' width='425' height='355' src='http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/2XNUcLSCNqQ?rel=0&amp;fs=1&amp;ap=%252526fmt%253D18' webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen frameborder='0'><\/iframe><p>I just finished reading <em>The World According To Garp<\/em>, by <strong>John Irving<\/strong>. Again. This book has meant so much to me that I toted it across country to grad school and then, many years later, moved a much more bedraggled paperback copy back to California.  I&#8217;ve re-read it at least five times.  My family has humored me in my love of All Things Related To The World According To Garp (and by extension, John Irving): my sister allowed me to drag her to Exeter Academy to try to find locations, such as the Jenny Fields Infirmary; my family buys me hardback versions of Irving&#8217;s new novels (we are purveyors of the paperback and the used book stores); and they have tolerated my discussion of such John Irving deep cuts as <em>Trying To Save Piggy Sneed<\/em> or the awful <em>The Fourth Hand<\/em>.  When I  met Mr. Royale, I was happy to find a paperback copy of <em>Garp<\/em> among his possessions; if he had not liked the novel, it would have been a deal breaker.<\/p>\n<p>1978&#8217;s <em>Garp<\/em>, initially entitled *<em>Lunacy and Sorrow<\/em>, is one of those amazing books that everyone should read (don&#8217;t try to get out of the 609 page count by watching the 1982 George Roy Hill film starring Robin Williams as Garp. It&#8217;s too cute).  It is one of my nominations for <strong>The Great American Novel<\/strong>. It includes those quintessential American themes: Sex, Violence, Death, Love, Family, Religion (although in this case, through political causes). In fact, I could make a case of <em>Garp<\/em> also being The Great (Rock &#8216;n Roll) American Novel: the focus on lust, the contrast of being an outsider with the need to be accepted by a group, a sensitive main character who communicates his feelings about the world through art, the desire and confusion about fame.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe for you, the Great American Novel is <em>Moby Dick<\/em>. Or <em>The Great Gatsby<\/em>. Or <em>The Sun Also Rises<\/em>, <em>The Grapes of Wrath<\/em>, <em>Look Homeward, Angel<\/em>, or (another personal contender) <strong>Don Delillo<\/strong>&#8216;s <em>Underworld<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But what is <strong>The Great American Album<\/strong>? Which album best exemplifies those American themes? When I asked Mr. Royale this question, his first response was <em>Exile On Main Street<\/em>. But the Rolling Stones? Do you have to be American to have created an American record?<\/p>\n<p>I look forward to your discourse. Typed, double-spaced, with appropriate margins and font size. Consult <em>Strunk and White<\/em> for further details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I just finished reading The World According To Garp, by John Irving. Again. This book has meant so much to me that I toted it across country to grad school and then, many years later, moved a much more bedraggled paperback copy back to California. I&#8217;ve re-read it at least five times. My family has <a href='https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/lunacy-and-sorrow-and-the-great-american-album\/' class='excerpt-more'>[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1838,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[342],"tags":[726,725,724,727],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15728"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1838"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15728"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15728\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15728"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15728"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rocktownhall.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15728"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}