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Louis Adamic Key Words by SE
T @ Laughing in the Jungle 1932 -------- My
life in America has been largely an adventure in understanding,and these
people - foreign-born and native American - and their histories have been a
vital factor in that adventure. @gTheykimmigrantlgo
because each thinks that he will get the better of America and not America
the better of him.They listen to the few who return home from the United
States with two or three thousand dollars.They hear that some one else who
stayed there has succeeded on a big scale.And they think they will do the
same.America is the Land of Promise to them.She lures them over by the
thousands and hundreds of thousands - people from many countries,not only
from Carniola.She needs their hands even more than they need her dollars,and
makes use of them.Once upon a time immigrants were called edungf
in America; that was a good name for them.They were the fertilizer feeding
the roots of Americafs present and future greatness.They
are still edung.fThe roots of Americafs
greatness still feed on themc.Life in America is a scramble.More
people are swept under than rise to riches.h @gcMuch of ourkimmigrantlwork
and our strength is frozen in the buildings of New York€and
in the buildings of other cities€and in the railroads and bridges of
Americach @gEverything strives to grow,to get the
better of the next thing-thousands and millions of small things combine to
ruin a big thing,and vice versa-chaos-jungle-democracy:and wefre
supposed to be fighting to make it safe for the world!cBut,hell!ccAmerica:what a grotesque,fantastic place! A jungle,indeed.h cwhere Success is a religion,a
fanaticism;where achievement is measured,for the most part,in terms of
dollars and cents;where everyone is supposed to be the equal of the next man
and as such entitled to the same privileges;where the economic,social,and
educational system are arranged as to produce multitudes of failures of the
sorricst,most pathetic varietiesc. I
had not come to America,like Steve Radin,to become rich ;nor,like Koska,to
escape from myself or something or other; nor, like most mmigrants, to slave
at whatever task I could find. Rather, I had come to experience America, to
explore the great jungle, to adventure in understanding--and here I was. @ Robinson Jeffers A
Portrait 1929
-------- Critics
-glocal people,has he calls
them - eager to do justice to Jeffersfsignificance as a poet, try to
establish a kinship between his work and Whitmanfs.Their
eagerness is justified, but wild.Whitmanfs and Jeffersfstatures
as poets may stand comparisons,but aside from their sizes they are as unlike
as day and night. Indeed, the emergence of Jeffers, and that he is hailed as
a major poet and prophet, is a severe commentary upon Whitmanfs
dream of America. @ @The Nativefs Return 1934 -------- Gradually,
I realized what I had dimly known in my boyhood,that,next to agriculture,
Slovenia's leading industry was Culture. "Your
grandfather, Loyzecwhen he diedche
saidc, 'Living is like licking honeyclicking
honey off a thorn.'" "......In
America, in the cities at least,Death is a gangster who puts one on the spot,
then-bang! In America, he doesn't carry a scythe, but a sawed-off
shotgun." "....America
can't become another, vastly larger Slovenia. It's too late for that;....but
there must be some other way for a great nation to make peace with its
environment, and then work out of its circumstances a stout philosophy and
attitude, which would enable them to die as well as these peasants
die..." There
is no feminist movement in Yugoslavia such as we know in America or England
but ccThey hear of sex equality in Russia and believe
that only drastic government action initiated by farsighted,consistent social
engineers can liquidate the archaic system which keeps two or three million
women in Yugoslavia on the social level of domestic animals. gWe have contributed to America's
greatness not only with our brawn,but with our brains as well:our
genius.Nikola Tesla and Michael Pupin are Yugoslavs.Their inventions
doubtless are the most important factors in the modern life of the United
States.Tens of millions of electrical horsepower are generated in the United
States by the Tesla motors every year;and but Professor Pupin's
inventions,our telephony would be less efficient. ............ g
We have worked hard,millions of us,and our achievements remain.There are
buildings,bridges,railroads.There are Tesla motors and Pupin's system of long
distance telephony.All that is good.It is a permanent contribution to America
and the rest of the world.... gI guess my job in the next few
years,perhaps for the rest of my life,will be to harp on that idea
-and,incidentally,so far as it is within my ability,to interpret my old
country to America.I love Yugoslavia and I think Americans should be
interested in it - should try to understand its problems and its importance
(with the rest of the Balkans and eastern Europe) in the international
situation -should appreciate the intrinsic worth of its people and thus
perceive how it happened that we have contributed so much to the greatness of
the United Statesc.h @There was a touch of spring in the
air.The birds were flying back from the south.Carniola looked very lovelyc.Near
the track,as our train sped Trieste-ward,we saw a peasant plowing.He looked
like my brother Stan,tall,husky,bent over the plow-handles.There was a great
dignity in his taskc..As we passed him he reached the end
of a furrow.He glanced up and wavedc.I had an enormous lump in my throat. @ Dynamite 1934, revised edition of 1931 -------- In
fine,the American working class will be violent until the workers become
revolutionary in their minds and motives and organize their revolutionary
spirit into force?into unions with revolutionary aims to power.Then they will
be able to afford to dispense with such violence as has been described in
this book. @ Grandsons 1935 -------- cSecond generation Americans,children
of immigrants of most nationalities,had a tendency to feel ashamed of their
parents and repudiate their racial background,to draw away from people of
their own blood;while third generation Americans,the immigrantsfgrandchildren,tended
very strongly to return--or,rather,to seek out people of their racial strains
and discover their backgroundsc.He was shadowy,a shadow-person,no
reality under or about him,just moving over the scene irrelevantlyc. @chuman America is chopped up into
numerous racial,class,and cultural islands surrounded by vague seas,with
scant connection and communication among them.The old Melting Pot or Crucible
idea has not been carried out any too well.Human America is poorly
integrated,and I am for integration and homogeneity,for the disappearance of
the now sharply defined,islandlike groups,and the gradual,organic merging of
all the races and nations now in the United States on the politico-cultural
pattern laid out by the earliest immigrants to this continent and their
descendants.Hence my entrance into this quarrel with the alien-baiters. @My America 1938 -------- I
am a student who is his own teacher,a finder-out,one who is trying to get at
the truth about things and making an effort to understand themc.I
want to be,to do something,to spend myself for something. ...America
was a Land Nobody Knew. gCommunism gave them hope of a better
future;perhaps erroneously,but hope,which
filled them,made them stand up as men,enabled them to endure
prison,hunger,and torture.It gave them character and personality,a staunch
integrity.c.h ......Cleary,I
was an American from Slovenia,or a Slovenian who came to America and became
an American.By coming to the United States and becoming an American writer,I
had jumped the boundaries and restrictions,the profound and elaborate
pettiness,of the Old World.I was of two worlds,which met in that blizzard on
the Iron Range in Minnesota,in Cleveland and elsewhere--not perfectly,but
still,they met:America and Slovenia. The
chief and most important fact (the only one I shall stress here) about the
New Americans is that all too many of them are oppressed by feelings of
inferiority in relation to their fellow-citizens of older stock,to the main
stream of American life,and to the problem of life as a whole;which,of
course,is bad for them as individuals,but,......even worse for the
country.P211 gI am an ex-alien who became an
American citizen while in the United States Army during the [First] World
War,and the views expressed here are only my own.I represent no one and
nothing except,I hope,a certain emotion for this land of my adoption which is
an amalgam of love and hope,and on which I have no monopoly.... g...I am deeply mindful of the fact
that [over] one-third of our population is of recent,largely non-Anglo-Saxon
immigrant stock,the beginning of whose background in this country is Ellis
Island rather than [Jamestown or] Plymouth Rock.I belong to this numerous new
element,but I am for the whole of present-day America,not as something that
is finished and satisfactory...but as material out of which the future has to
be wrought,as something in the process of becoming.... @ America
is a process-long-endless. In
regard to America,however,I was on m return essentially where I had been
before my trip.My year abroad had convinced me that America was different-was
not Russia of 1917,was not Yugoslavia of 1933.It was America involved in
consitions many of which were peculiarly her own.As I have said,I was deeply
glad to be back.....By and by I decided that my "side" was to keep
America different.-- @......you know my feeling and idea
about the Long Road.it is the American way ,and I want to see that Road kept
open.I want to keep what lights there are along it burning,and I want to see
more of them lighted......I want America eventually to become a work of art. @ A YOUNG AMERICAN WITH A
JAPANESE FACE 1940
-------- gI saw it this way : we are of the most
recent immigration,and so still in the acute stage of adjustment to the
country, as the country is,in turn,in that stage in relation to us.We have
our problem,to be sure ; but what can we expect? @ PLYMOUTH ROCK AND ELLIS
ISLAND,1940 The
future,ours as the world's,is in unity within diversity.our various back
grounds are important and valuable,but,in the long run,not in themselves,not
as something perfect and final.They are important and valuable only as
material for our future American culture.as I say,we have a chance to create
a universal,a pan-human culture,more satisfying than anything humanity has as
yet devised or experienced.......The American Dream is a lovely thing,but to
keep it alive,to keep it from turning into a Nightmare,every once in a while
we've got to wake up. @ @From Many Land,1940 -------- ...a
new consciousness of America,of ourselves as people made up of over fifty
races and nationalities.....a new Americanization idea which will recognize
and accept,not merely tolerate,the various national and racial groups
as such;which will see the desirability of diversity in our population:which
will take a firm stand against alien-baiting and insist that the immigrant
citizens and their American-born children belong here as much as the
old-stock Americans because this is their America as much a anybody's;which
will help all the citizens to identify themselves with the United States:and
which will,thus,work toward national unity-against fear in our national
life-toward gradual assimilation or cultural fusion that will operate
naturally,not one way,but in many directions.p308@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ Preface of From Many
Land,1940 -------- My
purpose,as you know,is to begin exploring our American cultural past and to
urge the cultivation of its many common fields,not nostalgically,or
historically or academically,but imaginatively and creatively,with eyes to
the future,untill as a people we find and dare to sink our roots into our
common American subsoil,rich,sun-warmed and well watered,from which we still
many grow and flower. Can
you isolate the so-called Negro Problem from the entire racial-cultural
problem in America? Isnft it part of the same vast complexity
which involves us all and is a matter of general prejudice and intolerance,of
ignorance and fear? @ From Many Land,1940@p.301 ------- Melting Pot is a poor phrase and concept. It
means everybody is to be turned into something else with heart. The future,
ours and the world's, is in unity within diversity. Our various backgrounds
are important and valuable, but, in the long run, not in themselves, not as
something perfect and final. They are important and valuable only as material
for our future American culture. As I say, we have a chance to create a
universal, a pan-human culture, more satisfying than anything humanity has as
yet devised or experienced. The American Dream is a lovely thing, but to keep
it alive, to keep it from turning onto a Nightmare, every once in while we've
got to wake up. Two Way Passage 1942 -------- For one thing,the IndianseinvadedfWashington
caring signs like: eWHY DONfT YOU ALL GO
BACK,YOU DEAN FURRINERS? LET THE BUFFALO GRAZE AGAIN! @ A Nation Of Nations -------- cHere min the Statesn
at last is something in the doings of man that corresponds with the broadcast
doings of day and night.Here is not merely a nation but a teeming nation of
nationsc.-Walt Whitman,Preface to 1855 Edition of Leaves
of Grass. @ The New
Palestine,November28,1942 -------- I
am for a free Jewish homeland in Palestine which is not anything exclusive
and separate but a part of a world organized upon the basis of an intense
consciousness of all peoplefs interdependence and also for a free
Slovenia,a free Croatia,and a free Serbia in a free Balkan or
southeast-European confederation in a free United Europe,which is part of a
free World State. @ There
is a certain blend of courage, integrity, character and principle which has
no satisfactory dictionary name but has been called different things at
different times in different countries. Our American name for it is
"guts." @ My Death
to Fascism! @ My I
have in me a sort of peasant resistance to influences of all sorts. @ "A Study in
Courage" 1944 -------- "There is a certain
blend of courage, integrity, character and principle which has no
satisfactory dictionary name but has been called different things at
different times in different countries. Our American name for it is
Guts." @ The Eagle and The Roots ,1952 -------- gFreedom - honesty,hI
said;gthere's almost nothing more difficult for writers
to achieve and practice than that.In America,too.Especially in a period like
this.Especially freedom and honesty together.There are various definitions of
each.But to hell with it!h-in English. gIfm
in no shape to go into all that.h @ @gAdamic
not only sees deeply into current American social phenomena,but he studies
the lives of individual living in American with equal clarity,h
--------Carry McWilliams gche did more to call attention to ethnic values
and dramatize what he called ethe secondary consequencesfof
immigration than any other American of his time.h
--------Carry McWilliams @ @ The episode of DYNAMITE: @ To be continued.@ |
@
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@Laughing In the Jungle
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@@Laughing in the
Jungle 1932 -------- My
notion of the United States then,and for a few years after,was that it a
grand,amazing,somewhat fantastic place--the golden country--a sort of
Paradise --the Land of Promise in more ways than one--huge beyond
conception,thousands of miles across the ocean,untellably
exciting,explosive,quite incomparable to the tiny,quite,lovely Carniola.... In
America everything was possible.There even the common people were
"citizen,"not "subject,"as they wrere in Austria and in
most other European countries. "Theykimmigrantlgo
because each thinks that he will get the better of America and not America
the better of him.They listen to the few who return home from the United
States with two or three thousand dollars.They hear that some one else who
stayed there has succeeded on a big scale.And they think they will do the
same.America is the Land of Promise to them.She lures them over by the
thousands and hundreds of thousands - people from many countries,not only
from Carniola.She needs their hands even more than they need her dollars,and
makes use of them.Once upon a time immigrants were called 'dung' in America;
that was a good name for them.They were the fertilizer feeding the roots of
America's present and future greatness.They are still 'dung.' The roots of
America's greatness still feed on themc.Life in America is a scramble.More
people are swept under than rise to riches." "cMuch
of ourkimmigrantlwork and our strength is frozen in the buildings of New York€and
in the buildings of other cities€and in the railroads and bridges of Americac" ------------ I
said to her that I would like to lay my hands on "a real
book."...... She
spoke in very good croatian..."...Life was too cruel here,America is big
and terrible...America must become great,...We all came over from the Old
country to help America became great and terrible." "Everything
strives to grow,to get the better of the next thing-thousands and millions of
small things combine to ruin a big thing,and vice
versa-chaos-jungle-democracy:and we're supposed to be fighting to make it
safe for the world!cBut,hell!ccAmerica:what a grotesque,fantastic place! A
jungle,indeed." cwhere Success is a religion,a fanaticism;where achievement is
measured,for the most part,in terms of dollars and cents;where everyone is
supposed to be the equal of the next man and as such entitled to the same
privileges;where the economic,social,and educational system are arranged as
to produce multitudes of failures of the sorricst,most pathetic varietiesc. A
light rain had fallen during the night and the streets were frozen. Turning a
corner somewhere in the Twenties near Third Avenue, I came to a slight
incline where a teamster for all he was worth in an attempt to make them pull
up the slippery grade. Sparks flew from under the hooves; straining
themselves and unable to hold ground, the animals were falling@to their
knees, making scarcely any progress; and as the wagon shook over the cobbles,
little pieces of coal dropped onto the streets. They were@immediately picked
up by two small girls clad, so far as I could see, in threadbare torn dresses
that barely reached to their knees--and I was cold in my heavy army overcoat!
They were immigrants' children, no doubt. Obviously, they were rivals, each
belonging to a different family, for a piece of coal no sooner struck the
street than they both rushed for it like two famished animals for a bit of
food, frequently endangering their lives by crawing under the wagon. ------ I
belived that,if such an awakening occurred,it probably would begin with the
immigrants and their children--Hunkies,the Jews,the dagoes,the Germans,and
others. -----
...Hardly
anything so tangible is typical of America.There is no typical American.As I
say,America is a land of swift changes...not of types or typical things or
events... ------ I
had not come to America,like Steve Radin,to become rich ;nor,like Koska,to
escape from myself or something or other;nor,like most mmigrants,to slave at
whatever task I could find.Rather,I had come to experience America,to explore
the great jungle, to adventure in understanding--and here I was.I had found
the adventure exciting and worth while;and there was more to come. ------ True,the
border of "Coolidge prosperity" and other influences seem to have
reduced the greater part of the American masses to a piggish indifference
that is not safely commonplace; but underneath the deadness moves a tide of
dissatisfaction with the more obvious characteristics of American life,a
blind will to overcome the blight (or whatever one may be inclined to call
the combination of anarchic Big Business,Democracy,and organized
Christianity) that is responsible for the mediocre quality of American
civilization.The tide may not affect the surface much;none-the-less,it is
interesting to watch the course.At any moment it may start heaving. to
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Shouzou Tahara (Japan)
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Guide of Noted
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