What do you think John Steinbeck would have written about George W. Bush's America?

[Amerigo Vespucci]

I had the DISTINCT privilege...and honor...of taking a Steinbeck class taught at San Jose State by one of the country's foremost Steinbeck scholars, Susan Shillinglaw. She actually gave me an A+ for the course. I worked my ASS off for it, but the fact that she recognized that is one of my fondest college memories.

SO...the Grapes of Wrath guy...what do you think Steinbeck would have to say about two terms of Bush-Cheney?

[DarkTirade]

1. Whatever he'd say, he wouldn't say it directly...

he'd just show the results of their work and how it hurt the people at the bottom.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

3. True.

He had a way of laying it all out without connecting the dots...that was left to the reader. There was something in the dignity of people who'd lost everything that he captured so powerfully, so vividly.

:toast:

[DarkTirade]

5. Some people can't learn by just being told... they need to be shown.

And that's what was so powerful about his books. They didn't just TELL you what was going on... they showed you.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

2. I think he'd write a novel about Iraq War vets living under a bridge

[Amerigo Vespucci]

4. Maybe you should write that one.

Seriously.

What a powerful premise for a book. I'd read it, and millions of others should.

:toast:

[GoddessOfGuinness]

9. Maybe...

I've often felt I'd like to write... :toast:

[BrotherBuzz]

6. Steinbeck could have gone two routes...

He could have written a dark East of Eden type novel focusing on the dysfunctional family, or the comedy route. A comic/satirical look at the white House as seen through the eyes of the workers on loading docks out back of the White House; upstairs meets downstairs sort of juxtaposition.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

7. I think Bush-Cheney would have been viewed by Steinbeck as the ultimate atrocity...

...but you're right. He would have been the equivalent of a skilled surgeon if he chose to portray Bush as the village idiot via comedy or satire.

[Swede]

8. Of mice and little men.