It Has Happened Here?
5/5/07 07:15![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madrobinsI've finally figured it out. George Bush is a character written by Sinclair Lewis. I've always had a guilty fondness for Lewis, whose passion and observation trump his, um, often shrill style. One of his great stock characters is the crass guy who confuses his own vulgarity for noble-everyman status. Elmer Gantry, Cliff Clawson--but none of them is as crass or everyman-ish as Berzelius Windrip, called Buzz, in It Can't Happen Here:
I've lately been re-reading Arrowsmith, so I'm probably a little more sensitive to these characters than usual. So this morning I saw this, from today's San Francisco Chronicle:
They're kin, at the very least.
It Can't Happen Here is about how this crass everyman leads a fascist takeover of the United States, a big-hearted, crass, homespun fascist takeover. As shrill as it is (and Lewis had been to Europe in 1936 and was filled with a sense of horror and urgency about what he saw in Germany and Italy) it's a scary book to read because of its big-hearted, crass, vulgar inevitability. So Buzz Bush is having dinner with the Queen of England on Monday, and has promised not to put his boots on the table or drink from the water bottle. Mrs. Bush is making him wear white tie. I'm sure he'll try his best, but a Windrip is a Windrip is a Windrip.
Buzz Windrip was a Professional Common Man.
Oh, he was common enough. He had every prejudice and aspiration of the American Common Man. He believed in the desireability and therefore the sanctity of thick buckwheat cakes with adulterated maple syrup, in rubber trays for the ice cubes in his electric refrigerator, in the especial nobility of dogs, all dogs...and the superiority of anyone who possessed a million dollars. He regarded spats, walking sticks, caviar, titles, tea drinking, poetry not daily syndicated in newspapers, and all foreigners, possibly excepting the British, as degenerate.
I've lately been re-reading Arrowsmith, so I'm probably a little more sensitive to these characters than usual. So this morning I saw this, from today's San Francisco Chronicle:
How does George W. Bush, a towel-snapping Texan who puts his feet on the coffee table, drinks water straight from the bottle and was once caught on tape talking with food in his mouth, prepare for a state dinner with the British queen?
They're kin, at the very least.
It Can't Happen Here is about how this crass everyman leads a fascist takeover of the United States, a big-hearted, crass, homespun fascist takeover. As shrill as it is (and Lewis had been to Europe in 1936 and was filled with a sense of horror and urgency about what he saw in Germany and Italy) it's a scary book to read because of its big-hearted, crass, vulgar inevitability. So Buzz Bush is having dinner with the Queen of England on Monday, and has promised not to put his boots on the table or drink from the water bottle. Mrs. Bush is making him wear white tie. I'm sure he'll try his best, but a Windrip is a Windrip is a Windrip.