The Great British Novel

[shemthepenman]

I've already given my answer to the American novels that I relate to the most and the British one. I don't know what it's like to be British. And American culture tends to be dismissive of anything they can't use to advertise a product. They use Whitman for that now. Used to be: Walt Whitman, an American, a kosmos. That is and always has been sneered at by Americans, except for the ones who are inspired by getting sneered at. All original American art was taken to Europe to be refined then brought back to America to be sold. Except for the blues, which has been refined but has never surpassed its origins. And I don't know what it's like to be British. I suppose, like America, it involves a lot of internet use and drugs.

indeed and your answer is appreciated. 

and not knowing what it’s like to be british or american or russian etc. is precisely why it’s “important” to have the national epic (or The Great American Novel), i assume. 
Moby-dick was considered to be the great american novel of its time. and as neither of us know what it was like to be an american living in the 1800s, it’s lucky we have a book which, so it’s said, opens up a window to that. 
i still can’t put my finger on exactly why it’s such a big deal in american litarary culture (and not so much across the rest of the world) to aspire to write such a book. maybe it’s because national socialism’s ghost still lingers across europe like a bad smell, and to wrap a novel in the union jack feels a bit too dangerous. even now. 
in america, on the other hand, the second world war was something that happened, like almost everything else, on the silver screen. that beautiful wall of soft light that separates you from the cold hard realities of existence... oh dear, i’ve gone full cliché. how dreary.

well, who knows. 

ps. just to clear up some apparent confusion concerning exactly what the concept of The Great American Novel actually is, i found this neat little  summery on wikipedia of all places:

“The Great American Novel is the concept of a novel that perfectly represents the spirit of the age in the United States at the time of its publication.”