Bill Bryson's Notes from a Big Country As a Critique of American
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“Typically American”: Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Big Country as a critique of American society Diplomarbeit zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Magisters der Philosophie an der Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz vorgelegt von Marin Tomic am Institut für Amerikanistik Begutachter: Hölbling Walter, Univ.-Prof. Mag. Dr.phil. Graz, 2011 Table of Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 1 2. Background ...................................................................................................................... 3 2.1. Bill Bryson and his work .................................................................................... 3 2.2. The relevance of stereotypes .............................................................................. 3 2.3. Bryson’ use of stereotypes ................................................................................. 6 2.4. America as a stereotype ...................................................................................... 7 3. The image of the USA ................................................................................................... 8 3.1. America in German Literature ......................................................................... 12 4. The ‘dumb’ American ................................................................................................. 14 4.1. American ignorance ......................................................................................... 15 4.2. The anti-intellectualism debate ........................................................................ 20 4.3. Richard Hofstadter’s early accounts of American anti-intellectualism ............ 22 4.4. The Simpsons and American anti-intellectualism ............................................ 24 4.5. Media as a factor for American anti-intellectualism ........................................ 27 4.6. Entertainment’s role in the dumbing process ................................................... 31 4.7. Television as a selective force .......................................................................... 34 4.8. Popular culture vs. individualism ..................................................................... 35 4.9. In defense of American television .................................................................... 36 4.10. Chomsky’s Media Control ............................................................................... 39 4.11. Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 43 5. Consumerism in the USA ........................................................................................... 44 5.1. Shopping ........................................................................................................... 44 5.2. Society of plenty ............................................................................................... 46 5.3. McDonaldization .............................................................................................. 48 5.4. The waste generation ........................................................................................ 50 5.5. Convenience ..................................................................................................... 53 5.6. A short history of consumer culture ................................................................. 55 5.7. Cultural imperialism ......................................................................................... 58 5.8. The Dollar ......................................................................................................... 62 5.9. American food .................................................................................................. 65 5.9.1. Obesity in the US from an economic point of view ............................................. 66 5.9.2. The situation in the USA ...................................................................................... 68 5.9.3. The situation in the United Kingdom ................................................................... 69 5.9.4. The situation in Germany ..................................................................................... 70 5.9.5. Analysis ................................................................................................................ 72 6. Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 74 7. Bibliography .................................................................................................................. 77 1. Introduction “Why is it that while millions of people all over the world dream about living in the United States, many American intellectuals believe that it is a uniquely deformed and unjust society?” (Paul Hollander, Anti-Americanism) As the quote already indicates America has always had a special appeal for people all over the world. There is probably no one who could not name a number of associations with this big nation starting from iconic products, such as Coca Cola or donuts to the fascination of New York City or Hollywood or more general assumptions of the typical American citizen as either a cowboy in the Wild West or the fat neighbor from suburbia who takes his big American car to drive to his favorite fast food restaurant – all of them living the American way of life in pursuit of the American Dream. As a student of American Studies such clichés have always been of big interest for me and I had always looked up to the myth of American life and the idea that anything is possible even before I became involved in this topic at university. When discussing American stereotypes the possibilities seem endless but once one tries to get below the surface and attempts to grasp the idea behind them things get more complex and complicated. Principally, my intention was to write about the stereotypes of America but I was not able to find a starting point until I recalled reading a funny travel book about the USA by the author Bill Bryson, titled Notes from a Big Country. Soon it occurred to me that this could prove to be an ideal way to immerse myself in this discussion and I started collecting data that could support my idea but to my surprise the search was not as successful as imagined and more and more I had the impression that it is easier to talk about stereotypes and clichés than put them into an academic context. Fortunately, I started to develop a new concept after reading the primary text for the second time and noticing that his writing could arguably be interpreted as a critique of America. I searched for more evidence to support this hypothesis and found it at various points in the book and, therefore, decided to read the work from this particular point of view. American stereotypes often seem to have a negative aftertaste and this is the origin from which this thesis takes its inspiration. As the critical discussion of America is also a prevailing topic in media and the public it soon became clear to me that my approach was justified and interesting, as I wanted to write about current and ongoing issues. The title of the thesis “ ‘Typically American’: Bill Bryson’s Notes from a Big Country as a 1 critique of American society” incorporates both the stereotypical aspects of the writing as well as its interpretation as a criticism of the USA. Considering the wealth of various themes this topic has to offer I was rather disappointed by the literature I found. As mentioned before, it was very difficult to find books on stereotypes but a lot easier to detect rather neutral writings of American culture and representations of it in different contexts. Still, I was rather unsatisfied with the material I collected, especially since it included mostly dated editions, and was thus forced to do a lot of internet research, which helped me to access more recent information. As the paper also contains current statistics and facts the online sources proved to be very helpful. What I have done to contribute to this topic is to consider Bryson’s work as a critical writing, which obviously was a unique approach to the text since I did not find any written evidence that treated the book from this point of view. In combination with both historically based and current facts I have attempted to create a current consideration of US society in the following pages. This thesis will investigate the travel book Notes from a Big Country by Bill Bryson with regard to the critical assessment of American culture. Beginning with background information about the author himself it will proceed to provide basic information about stereotypes and their use and relevance for Bryson’s work and claim that they are to be found at the core of his descriptions of the USA. Further, I will present a rough overview of the image of the United States within the country itself as well as from an external viewpoint incorporating the notion of anti-Americanism. The main part of this text will present two main concepts and ideas of US culture that are to be found throughout Bill Bryson’s book and serve as underlying topics that fuel the whole discussion. Consequently, these themes about American dumbness and consumerism will generate various inputs that stand in more or less direct connection to them. It shall be argued that dumbness can be linked to ignorance, the role of the media or popular culture and others, while consumerism