Reading Raintree County II 110-21

 Two examples I read last night and felt poignant after last week's outbreak of white chickenshit behavior at the U.S. Capitol (Lockridge uses the dash instead of the quotation mark for his dialog):

- Well, what is America? Mr. Shawnessy said.

The Senator laughed gently, became silent. At last he said, 

- America is the most perfect form of government ever devised by man.e

-A lawyer's definition, Mr. Shawnessy said.

- America, said the Perfesser, is where a great many beasts try to live under a government perfectly devised for men.

- A cynic's definition, Mr. Shawnessy said.

- We need a poet's definition, the Perfesser said.

***

Mr. Shawnessy drew deeply on the cigar.

- America is a memory of pre-Columbian years. America is a cabin in the clearing ad a road that scarcely ruts the earth. It is the face of my mother n the sentimental doorway of our house in Indiana. America is an innocent myth that makes us glad and hopeful each time we read it in the book of our life. It is the same myth each time, with multipe meanings....

pp. 230-31

Mr. Shawnessy drew deeply on the cigar.

- America is a memory of pre-Columbian years. America is a cabin in the clearing ad a road that scarcely ruts the earth. It is the face of my mother n the sentimental doorway of our house in Indiana. America is an innocent myth that makes us glad and hopeful each time we read it in the book of our life. It is the same myth each time, with multiple meanings....

Raintree County, pp. 230-31

And this to close on:

How will you find the manyness in one, the oneness in many, the Republic? It hovers i the smell of all the Pullman cars and diners, and all the lobbies, courtrooms, courthouse toilets, and all the senate chambers, hotel rooms, and statehouse corridors. The Republic is rolled up in brown leaves and smoked all over the Republic.

p 229. 

My quotes come from a section set on July 4, 1892.

You out there, are you thinking of the Republic? Do you not despise the idea of E Plubis Unum?

sch