Happy Birthday John Steinbeck!

[Egalitarian Thug]

"We find after years of struggle that we do not take the trip; the trip takes us."

One of America's most profound thinkers.

[DefenseLawyer]

1. Maybe there ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue,

they's just what people does. Some things folks do is nice and some ain't so nice, and that's all any man's got a right to say.

[Egalitarian Thug]

2. "It has always seemed strange to me...

the things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second."

[ananda]

3. That was a great day, 112 years ago.

..

[Egalitarian Thug]

6. It was.

Why we choose to elevate the worst scum on earth, while ignoring the truly great is the creating the mechanism of our demise.

Steinbeck, Guthrie, Seeger, Al Lewis, etc. all told us what was and what is. That we choose to ignore it and pretend that all is well, says so much more about us than we are ready to acknowledge.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

4. "Young wolves, show us your teeth." John Steinbeck

[Egalitarian Thug]

5. If you're in trouble, or hurt or need - go to the poor people.

They're the only ones that'll help - the only ones.

What an amazing life and an pretty amazing man.

[femmocrat]

7. There is a fantastic Google doodle today showing his novels.

Check it out!

[Egalitarian Thug]

10. I saw it and then made the mistake of clicking in here only to be greeted with Happy Birthday

Chelsea Clinton.


I don't know whether these people just don't know, or if they don't care.

[hunter]

8. A distant cousin of mine.

Not that it matters. Whatever is right is right, no matter who writes it.

[Egalitarian Thug]

9. I think that would be so cool. My relatives are all murderers and thieves, albeit powerful

murders and thieves. I think being related to someone that significant would be great. Do you have any stories or anecdotes to share?

[Stargleamer]

11. Tom Joad Himself. . .

"Then I'll be all around in the dark - I'll be ever'where—wherever you look. Wherever they's a fight so hungry people can eat, I'll be there. Wherever they's a cop beatin' up a guy, I'll be there... I'll be in the way guys yell when they're mad an'—I'll be in the way kids laugh when they're hungry and they know supper's ready. An' when our folk eat the stuff they raise an' live in the houses they build—why, I'll be there."

[Egalitarian Thug]

12. Reading what he wrote in the times that he wrote it, and then looking at what we have become now,

isn't depression justified?

We're beset by morons on all sides, some call us friends and others call us enemies, but none of them seem to have any concept of what is, or could be, beyond the confines of their narrow little rooms.

[LostOne4Ever]

13. Many of his works still haunt me

From the death of Lenny in of Mice and Men, to Kino and Juana returning home at the end of the pearl.

Very powerful stories.

[Egalitarian Thug]

14. Where's that level today?

Steinbeck had a way to speak to everyone. All I find today is focus-group tested dreck mashed into a vaguely vanilla flavored slop, served up on a tin plate.

I've found writers with great ideas for telling great stories, but the actual words on the page are inadequate, at best. Like reading a paper written by a talented 12 year old.

Is it the publishing houses? The fact that no one wants to pay editors anymore? What?

[Morning Dew]

15. If I could only have one book, that book would be

East Of Eden.

[Egalitarian Thug]

16. Can't argue with that.

That old "pick one book forever" decision has always proved impossible for me. My choice changes form day to day, and just one always remains a problem.

Thanks for the reply.

[etherealtruth]

17. "Before I knowed it .... "

" ... I was sayin' out loud, 'The hell with it! There ain't no sin and there ain't no virtue. There's just stuff people do. "