PP--No Wonder You Don't Like Cooper

(Hey Shelly--Great Commentary! (Untitled) I couldn't have said it better myself!!:)

I would like to immediately negate Coopers claim in regards to the lack of resources and wealth in American culture. First, a critical interpretation of the statement would reveal an undisputed bias in favor of European culture, which exhibits the degree of his subjectivity, thereby taking away his credibiliy as a writer. If there is nothing interesting to write about in America, why is he writing? Why even try to compete against the European authors? The fact that he became a writer, yet has the audacity to make such a claim, demonstrates his hypocracy. Obviously there was not nothing to write about, or he wouldn't be doing it.

Second of all, I think that a comment like this is an attempt to make an excuse for himself. Maybe he knew that he couldn't compete in the international fiction market because well, he...knew that he sucked? Perhaps trying to justify his own lack of success by blaming society and America for the lack of inspiration is really only saying something about the confidence Cooper had in his own abilities as a writer.

Obviously in the 19th century, Europe had more history to draw from. IT WAS OLDER! How did he
expect America to emerge as a literay giant when there was no one living there? And what about Native American folklore as literature? He is so closed minded that he is acting as the epitome of Euro-centricity that is still an underlying foundation of this culture and the educational system. Maybe if people like Cooper & collegues did not perpetuate biases like these into the culture, we could move away from the European dominated ideals of the past and appreciate the the richness in diversity that America has to offer.

I say to Cooper--Use some imagination. Write about the very fact that on the surface we have less inspiration and wealth of culture than Europe but when you dig down deep to the working class, mid western America, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, tame the wilderness, gold digging/fortune finding,land of oppurtunity, working for subsistance,freedom loving, consitution writing, birth of a new nation---AMERICANA that we pride ourselves on as American citizens, we see all the glory and wealth in the world. Right here, at our fingertips.

I think that Cooper should have been deported for not agreeing.