When I finished my book, An Aspiration to Lie Flat, I realized I’d accidentally written a British novel. The problem was, I live in America.
While much of the English-speaking world shares literary traditions, there are definite regional differences.
For obvious reasons, Britain heavily influenced English language literature in the U.S. This was true from the arrival of the colonists up to the American Revolution when the U.S. began to form a national identity.
The divorce between the nations was final. Art was not placed under joint custody. Americans went on to develop our own literary traditions, ignoring Britain as they ignored us.
As a result, Americans sat out over a century’s worth of evolution in British comedy. We skipped Jerome K. Jerome and only tuned back in to encounter farce in Wodehouse’s middle to late years.
This is the core difference between the two national traditions:
Continue reading “Historically Screwed”
Stanton Fenwick 