18 July, 2006

Henry Louis Mencken

Posted by alex in writers at 4:02 am | Permanent Link

  • 5 Responses to “Henry Louis Mencken”

    1. Stanley Womack Says:
      18 July, 2006 at 2:23 pm

      That Mencken admired Twain is not particularly a recommendation. If readers will examine Twain for his characterizations of adult white people, they will find the most dreadful descriptions. White people to Twain were religious nuts, embarrassing (on trips to Europe, etc.), extravagantly gullible, given to con artistry, shallow, unintelligent, etc.

      If one were to actually examine every adult white character penned by Twain, it would differ in no particular from the most obscene defamations emitted by the corporate entertainment culture in Hollywood and Manhattan, and by the dominant media culture in place today.

    2. Olde Dutch Says:
      18 July, 2006 at 7:47 pm

      Two obscure, and forgotten American authors of German ancestry, Theodore Dreiser & James Huneker had serious influence on Mencken and his writing. Mencken’s interest in these two could almost be classified as a literary obsession.

      Today, it takes an editor to understand Dreiser, and Huneker might better have written in heiroglyphics.

      Not to change the subject. But, I would love to see VNN sponsor a poetry contest. No doggerel, of the sort “I shot a jew in Reno, Just to see if it would bleed.” Rather serious attempts at poetic expression by White Americans. It would be fun.

      Btw, I had never seen this before, and I’ve read more than my share of Mencken:

      Auroral.
      By Henry L. Mencken
      Another day comes journeying with the sun;
      The east grows ghastly with the dawning’s gleam,
      And e’er the dark has flown and night is done
      The city’s pavements with the many teem.

      Another Day of toil and grief and pain;
      Life surely seems not sweet to such as these;
      Yet they live toiling that they may but gain
      the right to life and all life’s miseries.

      New England magazine. New Series Volume 22, Issue 3: pp 255-382 May 1900

    3. alex Says:
      19 July, 2006 at 12:40 pm

      Mencken started off writing poetry after Kipling, but soon gave it up. He championed Dreiser as a realist, certainly not as a stylist, as Mencken and Dreiser are polar opposites in that regard. Mencken was probably more influenced by Twain and Schopenhauer than anyone.

    4. Gibbons Burke Says:
      1 June, 2008 at 9:53 pm

      This page is a rip off of the page I created about Mencken and is used without permission. Please remove it.

      http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/mencken.html

    5. Socrates Says:
      1 June, 2008 at 11:15 pm

      Ok.