p. 426 :
The last clear definite function of man - muscles aching to work, minds aching to create beyond the single need - this is man. To build a wall, to build a house, a dam, and in the wall and house and dam to put something of Manself, and to Manself take back something of the wall, the house, the dam; to take hard muscles from the lifting, to take clear lines and forms from conceiving. For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his concepts, emerges ahead of his accomplishments. This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. [...] And this you can know - fear the time when Manself will not suffer and die for a concept, for this one quality is the foundation of Manself, and this one quality is man, distinctive in the universe.
(The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 14, cité dans The Portable Steinbeck, 1971)
mardi 30 juin 2009
mardi 16 juin 2009
GELBER, Steven M.
p. 67 :
The metamorphosis of the restrained and distant Victorian father into the engaged and present suburban dad was one of the more significant changes in the structure of the modem family, and the male use of tools around the house was a critical component of that change. Historians Mark Carnes and Clyde Griffen recently asked, « When did Mr. Fixit and the master of the barbecue appear and did these circumscribed modifications in role alter the older division of gender spheres significantly? » This article answers part of that question; « Mr. Fixit » put in his first formal appearance just after the turn of the century, although there had been calls and precursors as early as the 1870s. Furthermore, his appearance did indeed indicate an important alteration of the male sphere. By taking over chores previously done by professionals, the do-it-yourselfer created a new place for himself inside the house. In theory it overlapped with a widening female household sphere, but in practice it was sufficiently distinct so that by end of the 1950s the very term « do-it-yourself » would become part of the definition of suburban husbanding.
("Do-It-Yourself: Constructing, Repairing and Maintaining Domestic Masculinity" dans American Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Mar., 1997))
The metamorphosis of the restrained and distant Victorian father into the engaged and present suburban dad was one of the more significant changes in the structure of the modem family, and the male use of tools around the house was a critical component of that change. Historians Mark Carnes and Clyde Griffen recently asked, « When did Mr. Fixit and the master of the barbecue appear and did these circumscribed modifications in role alter the older division of gender spheres significantly? » This article answers part of that question; « Mr. Fixit » put in his first formal appearance just after the turn of the century, although there had been calls and precursors as early as the 1870s. Furthermore, his appearance did indeed indicate an important alteration of the male sphere. By taking over chores previously done by professionals, the do-it-yourselfer created a new place for himself inside the house. In theory it overlapped with a widening female household sphere, but in practice it was sufficiently distinct so that by end of the 1950s the very term « do-it-yourself » would become part of the definition of suburban husbanding.
("Do-It-Yourself: Constructing, Repairing and Maintaining Domestic Masculinity" dans American Quarterly, Vol. 49, No. 1 (Mar., 1997))
LEWIN, Herbert S.
p. 169 :
The paragon of the successful, self-reliant, courageous, and self-made man is a traditional American ideal. It is quite certainly the educational ideal of the Boy Scouts of America. But the virtues, which were of vital importance in the frontier period, have lost much of their meaning in a world in which the opportunities for individual achievement and initiative are clearly limited by an economic and social structure, which in spite of fluctuations is pretty well-organized and patterned. Today most youngsters are forced to work under conditions that demand a mechanical and standardized performance rather than individual resourcefulness. Nor is in this society as much opportunity left as heretofore to realize the adventurous and enterprising spirit so often advocated in the Scout literature. Individual achievement in our society is usually based on competition. It does not mean the type of territorial or economic expansion as in the days of unlimited frontier opportunities, rather it means an unrelenting weeding-out of the rival.
("The Way of the Boy Scouts" dans Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Nov., 1947))
The paragon of the successful, self-reliant, courageous, and self-made man is a traditional American ideal. It is quite certainly the educational ideal of the Boy Scouts of America. But the virtues, which were of vital importance in the frontier period, have lost much of their meaning in a world in which the opportunities for individual achievement and initiative are clearly limited by an economic and social structure, which in spite of fluctuations is pretty well-organized and patterned. Today most youngsters are forced to work under conditions that demand a mechanical and standardized performance rather than individual resourcefulness. Nor is in this society as much opportunity left as heretofore to realize the adventurous and enterprising spirit so often advocated in the Scout literature. Individual achievement in our society is usually based on competition. It does not mean the type of territorial or economic expansion as in the days of unlimited frontier opportunities, rather it means an unrelenting weeding-out of the rival.
("The Way of the Boy Scouts" dans Journal of Educational Sociology, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Nov., 1947))
SEGAL, Eric J.
p. 639 :
Having recognized the need to manage adolescence, and bolstered by a tenable theoretical framework, boys’ workers found further incentive for their mission in the nationalistic rhetoric of expansionism that followed the closing of the American frontier. F. J. Turner's 1893 address, « The Significance of the Frontier in American History, » held that the unique national character of the American people was the product of their evolution in confronting the ever-present, though now bygone, frontier. In its place the city increasingly defined American social life at some peril to values established in the conquest of the frontier. Echoing sentiments of the frontier thesis – its nostalgic acknowledgment of the passing of the untamed West and the consequent need for new kinds of frontiers to secure manliness – Daniel Carter Beard, an early BSA leader, argued :
« The Wilderness is gone, the Buckskin Man is gone, the painted Indian has hit the trail over the Great Divide, the hardships and privations of pioneer life which did so much to develop sterling manhood are now but a legend in history, and we must depend upon the Boy Scout Movement to produce the MEN of the future. »
The Boy Scout movement, then, aimed to counteract the debilitating influences of women, the city, and modern life, taken to be the antithesis of the uniquely American experience of the frontier.
("Norman Rockwell and the Fashioning of American Masculinity" dans The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1996))
Having recognized the need to manage adolescence, and bolstered by a tenable theoretical framework, boys’ workers found further incentive for their mission in the nationalistic rhetoric of expansionism that followed the closing of the American frontier. F. J. Turner's 1893 address, « The Significance of the Frontier in American History, » held that the unique national character of the American people was the product of their evolution in confronting the ever-present, though now bygone, frontier. In its place the city increasingly defined American social life at some peril to values established in the conquest of the frontier. Echoing sentiments of the frontier thesis – its nostalgic acknowledgment of the passing of the untamed West and the consequent need for new kinds of frontiers to secure manliness – Daniel Carter Beard, an early BSA leader, argued :
« The Wilderness is gone, the Buckskin Man is gone, the painted Indian has hit the trail over the Great Divide, the hardships and privations of pioneer life which did so much to develop sterling manhood are now but a legend in history, and we must depend upon the Boy Scout Movement to produce the MEN of the future. »
The Boy Scout movement, then, aimed to counteract the debilitating influences of women, the city, and modern life, taken to be the antithesis of the uniquely American experience of the frontier.
("Norman Rockwell and the Fashioning of American Masculinity" dans The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1996))
SEGAL, Eric J.
p. 638 :
Other observers characterized city life itself as an enervating influence and a threat to masculinity. One commentator wrote in 1902 that urban parents « are frequently pained to find that their children have less power and less vitality to endure the rough side of life than they have themselves. […] Families who live in the city without marrying country stock for two or three generations […] later are unable to rear strong families. » New working patterns for urban industries drew middle-class men from the home, subjected them to enfeebling work environments, and interrupted traditions of father-son apprenticeships through the intervention of corporations. Medical discourse, too, substantiated fears of modern urban life, identifying neurasthenia as an affliction affecting both men and women of « the in-door-living and brain-working classes. » In boys the disorder was treated with outdoor physical exercise.
To counter the influence of these perceived social developments, a variety of groups sought to shape the character of the nation’s youth, through the general rubric of boys' work. Boys' works organizations in American cities and towns included the popular Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), founded in 1851 to ease the transition of young men arriving for the first time in large cities, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), formed in 1910. Concerned adults – by profession « boys’ workers » – in urban, rural, and farming communities formed extrascholastic organizations to benefit and manage boys from various classes. Character building, a narrower term than boys’ work, focused specific attention on preparing white, middle-class boys to become responsible men. Through extrascholastic activity designed to discipline youths, character-building groups sought to instill in middle-class boys in particular probity, rectitude, and robust physical health.
("Norman Rockwell and the Fashioning of American Masculinity" dans The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1996))
Other observers characterized city life itself as an enervating influence and a threat to masculinity. One commentator wrote in 1902 that urban parents « are frequently pained to find that their children have less power and less vitality to endure the rough side of life than they have themselves. […] Families who live in the city without marrying country stock for two or three generations […] later are unable to rear strong families. » New working patterns for urban industries drew middle-class men from the home, subjected them to enfeebling work environments, and interrupted traditions of father-son apprenticeships through the intervention of corporations. Medical discourse, too, substantiated fears of modern urban life, identifying neurasthenia as an affliction affecting both men and women of « the in-door-living and brain-working classes. » In boys the disorder was treated with outdoor physical exercise.
To counter the influence of these perceived social developments, a variety of groups sought to shape the character of the nation’s youth, through the general rubric of boys' work. Boys' works organizations in American cities and towns included the popular Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA), founded in 1851 to ease the transition of young men arriving for the first time in large cities, and the Boy Scouts of America (BSA), formed in 1910. Concerned adults – by profession « boys’ workers » – in urban, rural, and farming communities formed extrascholastic organizations to benefit and manage boys from various classes. Character building, a narrower term than boys’ work, focused specific attention on preparing white, middle-class boys to become responsible men. Through extrascholastic activity designed to discipline youths, character-building groups sought to instill in middle-class boys in particular probity, rectitude, and robust physical health.
("Norman Rockwell and the Fashioning of American Masculinity" dans The Art Bulletin, Vol. 78, No. 4 (Dec., 1996))
TWAIN, Mark
p. 58 :
[…] and from that point my watchman threw off all trammels of date and locality and branched out into a narrative that bristled all along with incredible adventures, a narrative that was so reeking with bloodshed and so crammed with hair-breadth escapes and the most engaging and unconscious personal villainies that I sat speechless, enjoying, shuddering, wondering, worshipping. [...] It was a sore blight to find out afterward that he was a low, vulgar, ignorant, sentimental, half-witted humbug, an untraveled native of the wilds of Illinois, who had absorbed wildcat literature and appropriated its marvels, until in time he had woven odds and ends of the mess into this yarn and then gone on telling it to fledglings like me until he had come to believe it himself. (p. 58)
(Old Times on the Mississippi, cité dans The Portable Mark Twain, 1985)
[…] and from that point my watchman threw off all trammels of date and locality and branched out into a narrative that bristled all along with incredible adventures, a narrative that was so reeking with bloodshed and so crammed with hair-breadth escapes and the most engaging and unconscious personal villainies that I sat speechless, enjoying, shuddering, wondering, worshipping. [...] It was a sore blight to find out afterward that he was a low, vulgar, ignorant, sentimental, half-witted humbug, an untraveled native of the wilds of Illinois, who had absorbed wildcat literature and appropriated its marvels, until in time he had woven odds and ends of the mess into this yarn and then gone on telling it to fledglings like me until he had come to believe it himself. (p. 58)
(Old Times on the Mississippi, cité dans The Portable Mark Twain, 1985)
PORTELLI, Alessandro
p. 81 :
America’s fluid frontiers, its composite, mobile, egalitarian democracy, the degree to which it seems, more than any other nation, to live in the present : all these traits are intentionally evoked in American literary writing by the improvisational, digressive, expansive, fluid and time-bound mark of the voice.
(The Text and the Voice, 1994)
America’s fluid frontiers, its composite, mobile, egalitarian democracy, the degree to which it seems, more than any other nation, to live in the present : all these traits are intentionally evoked in American literary writing by the improvisational, digressive, expansive, fluid and time-bound mark of the voice.
(The Text and the Voice, 1994)
HAZARD, Lucy Lockwood
p. xviii :
[L]ife in America has been conditioned by the perennial rebirth of the frontier. The successive frontiers present a moving picture of American life – moving geographically and chronologically from the Atlantic settlements of the 17th century to the California mining camps of the 19th century ; moving economically from the pathfinder, the trapper, to the exploiter, the land-speculator.
(The Frontier in American Literature, 1967)
[L]ife in America has been conditioned by the perennial rebirth of the frontier. The successive frontiers present a moving picture of American life – moving geographically and chronologically from the Atlantic settlements of the 17th century to the California mining camps of the 19th century ; moving economically from the pathfinder, the trapper, to the exploiter, the land-speculator.
(The Frontier in American Literature, 1967)
KOUWENHOVEN, John A.
p. 5 :
The least mechanized of all aspects of our society – the lives of men and women on the advancing frontier – depended upon the machine-made rifles and revolvers which enabled the pioneers to kill game and outfight the Indians, upon the steamboats and railroads which opened up new country for settlement, and upon the telegraph which made rapid intercommunication possible.
(The Arts in Modern American Civilization, 1967)
The least mechanized of all aspects of our society – the lives of men and women on the advancing frontier – depended upon the machine-made rifles and revolvers which enabled the pioneers to kill game and outfight the Indians, upon the steamboats and railroads which opened up new country for settlement, and upon the telegraph which made rapid intercommunication possible.
(The Arts in Modern American Civilization, 1967)
KOUWENHOVEN, John A.
p. 132 :
These new “folk arts” are […] the product of people directly involved with the dynamic forces of contemporary life […]. In order to distinguish them from the more familiar folk arts, I labeled these the vernacular arts – meaning by that the empirical attempts of ordinary people to shape the elements of their everyday environment in a democratic, technological age. Specifically, I meant the books, buildings and artifacts of all sorts whose forms have been shaped as a direct response to the new elements which democracy and technology have introduced into our environment within the past hundred and fifty years.
(The Beer Can by the Highway : Essays on What’s “American” about America, 1961)
These new “folk arts” are […] the product of people directly involved with the dynamic forces of contemporary life […]. In order to distinguish them from the more familiar folk arts, I labeled these the vernacular arts – meaning by that the empirical attempts of ordinary people to shape the elements of their everyday environment in a democratic, technological age. Specifically, I meant the books, buildings and artifacts of all sorts whose forms have been shaped as a direct response to the new elements which democracy and technology have introduced into our environment within the past hundred and fifty years.
(The Beer Can by the Highway : Essays on What’s “American” about America, 1961)
COOVER, Robert
p. 6 :
Not that Americans are superstitious, of course. How could they be, citizens of this, the most rational nation (under God) on earth? They need no omens to pull a switch, turn a buck, or change the world, for these are the elected sons and daughters of Uncle Sam, né Sam Slick, that wily Yankee Peddler who, much like that ballsy Greek girl of long ago, popped virgin-born and fully constituted from the shattered seed-poll of the very Enlightenment – « slick, » as the Evangels put it, « as a snake out of a black skin! » Young Sam, « lank as a leafless elm, » already chin-whiskered and plug-hatted and all rigged out in his long-tailed blue and his striped pantaloons, his pockets stuffed with pitches, patents, and pyrotechnics, burst upon the withering Old World like a Fourth of July skyrocket, snorting and neighing like a wild horse : « Who – Whoo – Whoop! Who’ll come gouge with me? Who’ll come bite with me? Rowff – Yough – Snort – YAHOO! In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, I have passed the Rubicon – swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish, I’m in fer a fight, I’ll go my death on a fight, and with a firm reliance on the pertection of divine protestants, a fight I must have, or else I’ll have to be salted down to save me from spilin’! You hear me over thar, you washed-up varmints? This is the hope of the world talkin’ to you! I am Sam Slick the Yankee Peddler – I can ride on a flash of lightnin’, catch a thunderbolt in my fist, swaller niggers whole, raw or cooked, slip without a scratch down a honey locust, whup my weight in wildcats and redcoats, squeeze blood out of a turnip and cold cash out of a parson, and out-insructabullize the heatin Chinee […]! Lo, I say unto you, I have put a crimp in a cat-a-mount with my bare hands, hugged a cinnamon b’ar to death, and made a grizzly sing « Jesus, Lover of My Soul » in a painful duet with his own arsehole – and I have not yet begun to fight! Yippee! I’m wild and woolly and fulla fleas, ain’t never been curried below the knees, so if you wish to avoid foreign collision you had better abandon the ocean, women and children first! For we hold these truths to be self-evident : […] that nothing is sartin’ but death, taxes, God’s glowin’ Covenant, enlightened self-interest, certain unalienated rights, and woods, woods, woods, as far as the world extends!
(The Public Burning, 1977)
Not that Americans are superstitious, of course. How could they be, citizens of this, the most rational nation (under God) on earth? They need no omens to pull a switch, turn a buck, or change the world, for these are the elected sons and daughters of Uncle Sam, né Sam Slick, that wily Yankee Peddler who, much like that ballsy Greek girl of long ago, popped virgin-born and fully constituted from the shattered seed-poll of the very Enlightenment – « slick, » as the Evangels put it, « as a snake out of a black skin! » Young Sam, « lank as a leafless elm, » already chin-whiskered and plug-hatted and all rigged out in his long-tailed blue and his striped pantaloons, his pockets stuffed with pitches, patents, and pyrotechnics, burst upon the withering Old World like a Fourth of July skyrocket, snorting and neighing like a wild horse : « Who – Whoo – Whoop! Who’ll come gouge with me? Who’ll come bite with me? Rowff – Yough – Snort – YAHOO! In the name of the great Jehovah and the Continental Congress, I have passed the Rubicon – swim or sink, live or die, survive or perish, I’m in fer a fight, I’ll go my death on a fight, and with a firm reliance on the pertection of divine protestants, a fight I must have, or else I’ll have to be salted down to save me from spilin’! You hear me over thar, you washed-up varmints? This is the hope of the world talkin’ to you! I am Sam Slick the Yankee Peddler – I can ride on a flash of lightnin’, catch a thunderbolt in my fist, swaller niggers whole, raw or cooked, slip without a scratch down a honey locust, whup my weight in wildcats and redcoats, squeeze blood out of a turnip and cold cash out of a parson, and out-insructabullize the heatin Chinee […]! Lo, I say unto you, I have put a crimp in a cat-a-mount with my bare hands, hugged a cinnamon b’ar to death, and made a grizzly sing « Jesus, Lover of My Soul » in a painful duet with his own arsehole – and I have not yet begun to fight! Yippee! I’m wild and woolly and fulla fleas, ain’t never been curried below the knees, so if you wish to avoid foreign collision you had better abandon the ocean, women and children first! For we hold these truths to be self-evident : […] that nothing is sartin’ but death, taxes, God’s glowin’ Covenant, enlightened self-interest, certain unalienated rights, and woods, woods, woods, as far as the world extends!
(The Public Burning, 1977)
samedi 6 juin 2009
EGGERS, Dave
p. 47 :
Please look. Can you see us? Can you see us, in our little red car? Picture us from above, as if you were flying above us, in, say, a helicopter, or on the back of a bird, as our car hurtles, low to the ground, straining on the slow upward trajectory but still at sixty, sixty-five, around the relentless, sometimes ridiculous bends of Highway 1. Look at us, goddammit, the two of us slingshotted from the backside of the moon, greedily cartwheeling toward everything we are owed. Every day we are collecting on what's coming to us, each day we're being paid pack for what is owed, what we deserve, with interest, with some extra motherfucking consideration - we are owed, goddammit - and so we are expecting everything, everything. [...]
[...] Try to stop us, you pussy! You can't stop us from singing, and you can't stop us from making fart sounds, from putting our hands out the window to test the aerodynamics of different hand formations, from wiping the contents of our noses under the front of our seats. You cannot stop me from having Toph, who is eight, steer, on a straightaway, while I take off my sweatshirt because suddenly it's gotten really fucking hot. [...]
To our right is the Pacific, and because we are hundreds of feet above the ocean, often with nothing in the way of guardrail between us and it, there is sky not only above us but below us, too. Toph does not like the cliff, is not looking down, but we are driving in the sky, with clouds whipping over the road, the sun flickering through, the sky and ocean below. Only up here does the earth look round, only up here does the horizon dip at its ends, only up here can you see the bend of the planet at the edges of your peripheries. Only here you are almost sure that you are careening on top of a big shiny globe, blurrily spinning - you are never aware of these things in Chicago, it being so flat, so straight - and and and we have been chosen, you see, chosen, and have been given this, this being owed to us, earned by us, all of this - the sky is blue for us, the sun makes passing cars twinkle like toys for us, the ocean undulates and churns for us, murmurs and coos to us. We are owed, see, this is ours, see. We are in California, living in Berkeley, and the sky out here is bigger than anything we've ever seen - it goes on forever, is visible from every other hilltop - hilltops! - every turn on the roads of Berkeley, of San Francisco -
(A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, 2000)
Please look. Can you see us? Can you see us, in our little red car? Picture us from above, as if you were flying above us, in, say, a helicopter, or on the back of a bird, as our car hurtles, low to the ground, straining on the slow upward trajectory but still at sixty, sixty-five, around the relentless, sometimes ridiculous bends of Highway 1. Look at us, goddammit, the two of us slingshotted from the backside of the moon, greedily cartwheeling toward everything we are owed. Every day we are collecting on what's coming to us, each day we're being paid pack for what is owed, what we deserve, with interest, with some extra motherfucking consideration - we are owed, goddammit - and so we are expecting everything, everything. [...]
[...] Try to stop us, you pussy! You can't stop us from singing, and you can't stop us from making fart sounds, from putting our hands out the window to test the aerodynamics of different hand formations, from wiping the contents of our noses under the front of our seats. You cannot stop me from having Toph, who is eight, steer, on a straightaway, while I take off my sweatshirt because suddenly it's gotten really fucking hot. [...]
To our right is the Pacific, and because we are hundreds of feet above the ocean, often with nothing in the way of guardrail between us and it, there is sky not only above us but below us, too. Toph does not like the cliff, is not looking down, but we are driving in the sky, with clouds whipping over the road, the sun flickering through, the sky and ocean below. Only up here does the earth look round, only up here does the horizon dip at its ends, only up here can you see the bend of the planet at the edges of your peripheries. Only here you are almost sure that you are careening on top of a big shiny globe, blurrily spinning - you are never aware of these things in Chicago, it being so flat, so straight - and and and we have been chosen, you see, chosen, and have been given this, this being owed to us, earned by us, all of this - the sky is blue for us, the sun makes passing cars twinkle like toys for us, the ocean undulates and churns for us, murmurs and coos to us. We are owed, see, this is ours, see. We are in California, living in Berkeley, and the sky out here is bigger than anything we've ever seen - it goes on forever, is visible from every other hilltop - hilltops! - every turn on the roads of Berkeley, of San Francisco -
(A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius, 2000)
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