Theodore Dreiser on Capitalism

[ericadawn16]

"This matter of manufacture and enormouse industries is always a fascinating thing to me, and careening along this lake shore at breakneck speed, I could not help marveling at it. It seems to point so clearly to a lordship in life, a hierarchy of powers, against which the common man is always struggling, but which he never quite overcomes, anywhere. The world is always palavering about the brotherhood of man and the freedom and independence of the individual; yet when you go through a city like Buffalo or Cleveland and see all its energy practically devoted to great factories and corporations and their interests, and when you see the common man, of whom there is so much talk as to his interests and superiority, living in cottages or long streets of flats without a vestige of charm or beauty, his labor fixed in price and his ideas circumscribed in part (else he would never be content with so meager and grimy a world), you can scarcely believe in the brotherhood of man, however much you may believe in the sympathy or good intentions of some people."

Theodore Dreiser in Hoosier Holiday 1914

I've never read Dreiser before and this has been described as the most "acessible" of his work. It's the very first road trip by car novel so he describes the locations along the way but he also comments on society and how he sees it. It's very interesting and sadly...feels very modern in a lot of parts. I think he'd get along well with Bill Maher.

Comments

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

I think he's got a lot of like....words but not a lot of....well, I was bored before I got half-way through that paragraph.

Dullsville is dull. How are you still reading this?

[ericadawn16.livejournal.com]

I finished it in two days, He does mention Fort Wayne in a chapter or two as well as many cities that my family is from. There also drawings illustrating their trip. I found it very interesting especially all the people he would mention at times and I'd never heard of them so I'd stop and look them up on Wiki.

[surreal-44.livejournal.com]

He's pretentious and I get a distinct feel of smug superiority just from the few passages you've shown from the book.

And like I said...dull. He uses big words and descriptive language in a way that comes off as both arrogant and mocking.

But to each his own. ;-)