John Steinbeck knew. Remember the quote:

[King Coal]

"The flies have captured the flypaper." Remember that? It was about the German occupation of Norway. I thought history wasn't supposed to repeat itself if you knew it.

[senseandsensibility]

1. Great Steinbeck

quote. Sums up this "black is white" administration well.

[King Coal]

2. I may have got it wrong

It may be "The flies have conquered the flypaper."

[senseandsensibility]

3. That's ok

I read Steinbeck Life in Letters and most of his novels, but I don't have a good memory for quotes. The meaning still stands, and I would enjoy hearing what he would have to say about this administration if he were alive. He'd probably be declared a terrorist.

[King Coal]

4. Steinbeck would make the case for this administration

to be defined as fascists.

[Professor_Moriarty]

5. Let us not get carried away with praise for Steinbeck.Steinbeck was

also a notorious anti-semite.

[rumguy]

6. Got a link to back that up?

Or is it something you read on FR?

If Steinbeck were alive today he would rhetorically eviscerate the * administration.

[Professor_Moriarty]

27. I am very sorry I posted that.I remembered reading about

Steinbeck's later years when he started hobnobbing with Hollywood's elite and developed some of the attitudes prevalent in those circles. He became a very fervent supporter of Lyndon Johnson's Vietnam War.
It was during those years, that I read a British author's essay that I am not able to link to right now that he had conversations with Steinbeck that indicated to the British author that anti semitism was involved.

In any case I should not have posted this without the proof in my hands.Please forgive my haste. I should not have accused someone without the proof in my hands.But the fact that he was such a supporter of the Vitenam War should make one pause that he would eviscerate the * Administration.I don't buy that at all.

[mac56]

28. Apology accepted.

Not sure, however, that I'd characterize him as "such a supporter of the Vietnam War". Steinbeck genuinely believed that the Vietcong were Mao's puppets. Still, he also believed the war in Vietnam was unwinnable. I think he'd thoroughly trounce * and the travesty in Iraq.

Add on edit: Steinbeck was a lifelong Dem, loyal to Kennedy and Johnson. This probably colored his initial enthusiasm for the war, as did his hatred for Communism. More compelling, however, was his love for his son, who was a foot soldier there. There's the parallel to * and Iraq, I think. Steinbeck would not want to see anyone's son or daughter deployed as a sacrificial lamb for an unjust cause and a pointless, endless exercise. Just my $.02.

[Professor_Moriarty]

29. Thank you.As you say, Steinbeck remains a genuine American

giant in the mold of Hemingway and Scott Fitzgerald.He too was my hero for a long time.His support for the Vietnam War diminished him in my eyes considerably despite his genuine empathy for the suffering of the okie farmers.

I would just like to put this to rest and remember the good that he has done for many of us.

[Professor_Moriarty]

34. I was not aware Steinbeck's son served in the Vietnam War as an

infantry man.I am sure this colored his thinking about the war.Like I said, he remains one of our giants and that is the way I want to remember him.Whether or not he would have eviscerated * is open to dispute and falls in the same category of whether Orwell would have leaned one way or other in our current political attitudes.Hard to say.

[rumguy]

7. Funny I just did some research on it and didn't find much

In fact - he was accused by fasicst business interests of being part of zionist plot, etc....

www.csupomona.edu/~jis/2003/Morsberger.pdf

I think you should either retract your 'notorious anti-semite' slur, back it up, or get tombstoned.

So I expect an answer. You hear me? You better fuckin' answer!

[louis c]

12. Isn't it curious

that these ridiculous, unsubstantiated accusations have been coming from DUers with so few posts.

I've seen it in other threads also.

[yardwork]

19. Yes, we have so many "visitors" tonight!

They all registered on September 8, the night that CBS had that little show. And they all use words like "us" and "we."

"Let us not get carried away in our enthusiasm for Democrats."

"We should pay attention to what Fox News has to say about this."

[Crunchy Frog]

9. I would like to see some documentation

for that claim. I have never heard it before. Please provide a link.

[rumguy]

10. here he seems very much not the anti-semite

This is from the link I gave you above:

"When the national director of Friends of Democracy, opposed to pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic propaganda, asked him if he was Jewish (because of the whispering campaign that he was part of Zionist plot), Steinbeck replied, "It happens that I am not Jewish and have no Jewish blood but it only happens that way. I find that I do not experience any pride that it is so...."

Steinbeck had many friends in Hollywood, Jewish friends - his books were turned into great movies.

So if you don't back up what you said - I am doing something I don't do very often - I am recommending you be tombstoned.

If you are spreading right wing malicious slander against great Americans like Steinbeck YOU DO NOT BELONG HERE ON DU - or even in America for that matter.

Maybe you should just leave the country.

[TrustingDog]

13. ahahahahah!

[louis c]

16. You were challenged to back up your accusation

It's your move. How is Steinbeck an anti-Semite?

If you can't prove it, you have lost any credibility here, Professor.

[SpiralHawk]

20. Agitprop from Moriarity, Watson

"It's Elementary" - Sherly

[King Coal]

21. If Steinbeck was a notorious anti-semite,

I would have heard about it. That is, well, assholish. LOL!

[mac56]

24. Steinbeck is my favorite American author

along with Twain, Vonnegut, and Faulkner.

Back up your assertion, please, or STFU.

[mac56]

26. Looks like a dump-and-run to me.

nm

[Bread and Circus]

17. Steinbeck is my favorite author in many ways...

[susanna]

18. I just re-read a couple of his books recently.

"Travels with Charley," and "The Moon is Down." I find that I like him more and more as time goes by...not sure why.

[Carla in Ca]

32. We repeat because, as Einstein said

You can't use the same thinking to solve a problem that was used to create it.

[pnorman]

8. I Googled the corrected phrase and found this:

http://www.khealey.com/TheMoonIsDown.html

THANKS, that quote is far more apt now as it was then. I'll be "plagarizing" it pretty frequently in days to come.

pnorman

[Union Thug]

11. Steinbeck! One of my faves...

Very few could so eloquently present to the world the plight of the common people.

Even "winter of our discontent', while stepping outside the parameters usually expected of a steinbeck novel, captured the idea in the main character's desperation that led him through his plotting the robbery.

[TrustingDog]

14. I just adored Tortilla Flats.

and Tom Joad in Grapes of Wrath.

no wonder he would be called an 'anti-semite pinko commie ne'er do well' by the PTB. hahahah.

[bigtree]

36. " that's what happens to a man with property"

Spencer Tracy. Priceless.

[TrustingDog]

15. double post. deletable.

[NightTrain]

22. "There ain't no sin, there ain't no virtue. There's just things folks do."

I'll bet the Bible-thumpers loved that quote!

[allalone]

23. always always

someone will quote a writer and ALWAYS some jerk will jump in with "oh he/she is anti-semite" no proof, no references, just making trouble. It's really getting on my last nerve.

[mac56]

25. Sort of the literary equivalent

of the "your favorite band sucks" threads in the Lounge, innit?

[DerekG]

30. "The Grapes of Wrath" is the great American novel, IMHO

Sorry folks, but "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" implodes 2/3 of the way through, as soon as Sawyer makes his dreaded reappearance.

I get tears in my eye just thinking about the Joads.

[senseandsensibility]

31. You know it's funny

I was introduced to The Grapes of Wrath by my mom, who is a fierce republican and will happily vote for *. Somehow our party has failed to attract many people who have populist tendencies, and are hoodwinked by the right. It's a tragedy, really. I, too, get tears in my eyes when I think of the Joads. The unexpected thing is that my mom does too, and yet she will vote for *.

[Morning Dew]

33. East Of Eden. Best. Book. Ever.

but Grapes of Wrath is great as well.

[UNION.JACK]

35. IMHO..........The best American novel

It can't happen here( by Sinclair Lewis)

U.J.

[Kenergy]

38. Yes, an excellent book!

[Misunderestimator]

37. "The flies have conquered the flypaper" from The Moon is Down

[0007]

39. Comes the dawn, they'll soon be gone

junior claims to be a passionate conservative, but he isn't. junior like to use the phrase about getting the government "out of our hair"
what he indeed means is deregulation of business, allowing for
Cheney and his buddies to operate legally to avoid setting up a long list of scandals and incidents of large-scale theft Like Savings and Loan, Pentagon procurement, Enron, World.com and many others, that the American folks have come to expect. junior also wants us to think that it is God's Will. This administration have put the police and the military into our homes, our schools. Little do they know that perseverance of the human spirit against tyranny will win!!