The Great American Novel

I belong to a small community of literary minded folks. There is nothing really that binds us together except love of reading, love of stories, and the myth of the Great American Novel. For the older members, the myth of the Great American Novel is one of discovery. There's a chance the epic tome will be written in their lifetime and they will get to find it and read it. There's even a chance that someone they know may write the book, and they will get to have great first hand discussions on characters, plot and all those other "literary things" that English majors deeply love. For the younger members of the group, the myth of the Great American Novel is still very much alive - There is a chance, however small, however remote, that we will write the Great American Novel bringing forth a brilliant story on the human condition. It's a slim chance to be sure. Vast economic and cultural armies are amassed against us and even statistics, that great arbiter of truth in the globalized world, tell us we won't succeed.

As a younger member, I have one worry that gnaws at me more than all the rest. How can anyone write the Great American Novel or even any great novel in an age of apathy? I have friends, good people, content to live out their lives in the pursuit of comfort over action, leisure over challenge, TV over justice. Comfort, leisure, and TV do not contribute to literary achievement. Great writing comes from great committment. But in the age of apathy, there is no such thing as great committment. For anyone. We are all walking with our heads down, in the rain, to get home as soon as possible. To barricade ourselves in our mini-american castles, comfortable yet lonely. To pass justice blindly on the street. Or even worse, to let justice pass us by without even a nod of acknowledgement.