In my December newsletter from GoodReads, Salon.com cofounder Laura Miller suggests five books for "people who spent their childhoods peeking hopefully into wardrobes." (She's referencing her childhood enchantment with C. S. Lewis's The Chronicles of Narnia.) While describing American Gods by Neil Gaiman, she says, "How do you translate the powerful motifs of European and British myth to America, a nation where the culture is historically shallow?"
Now, granted, the United States is the new kid on the block compared to Europe and England, but since that is through no fault of our own, I resent the insinuation that we are as a nation somehow also shallow. It's a problem I've run into before; Americans and non-Americans alike seem to enjoy deriding our country as frivolous, lacking depth and substance, obsessed with the material. Sure, we may have fondness for silly sitcoms, over-priced blue jeans and utterly wretched fast food, but we are greater than the sum of our parts. I'm not the type to go on a flag-waving, Star-Spangled-Banner-singing, patriotic-parade of one, and there have been times when I've been embarrassed of our presentation to the rest of the world, but I am proud to be an American. At the heart of it all, we are a a nation of helpers and hard workers, a nation of spirited people looking to enjoy life, a nation of immigrants who brought the best of our past and our hopes for the future with us. We may have gotten off-track lately, we may not have put our best foot forward, but to dismiss us as "historically shallow?" Overly harsh, and in my mind, untrue.
-k
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