Babbitt
by Sinclair Lewis · first published 1922
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"Zenith is the finest example of American life and prosperity to be found anywhere." Zenith is the Midwestern city where George F. Babbitt lives and works. A successful real estate agent, his business provides all the material trappings and comfort he thinks he ought to have. He is a member of all the right clubs, and unquestioningly shares the same aspirations and ideas as his friends and fellow Boosters. Yet even complacent, conformist Babbitt dreams of romance and escape, and when his best friend does something to throw his world upside down, he rebels, and tries to find fulfilment in roman
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For anyone struck by the modern relevancy of this piece I suggest you check out Babbitt by Sinclair Lewis. It's also from the 1920s and the American culture that it describes (and critiques) is very similar to today.
on “Why I Never Hire Brilliant Men (1924)” ↗…work instead. and, in the meantime, dissonance compounds as background radiation eventually that just leads to an even bigger crashout, burnout, break. Sinclair Lewis parodied this as early as 1922 in Babbitt [0], depicting a man who is economically satisfied and fits perfectly the mold of the white picket life and yet is devoid of meaning and satisfaction. he then spends his years in the wilderness crashing…
on “Burnt out on a three-day week” ↗The origin of the phrase is like something out of Lewis Sinclair's Babbitt. In 1911 on a rainy morning, TJ Watson met with the advertising and sales teams at the National Cash Register Corporation (pre-IBM). Frustrated by the lack of new submissions Watson went into a tirade:…
on “IBM's “Think” Motto in Chinese” ↗…feel Fitzgerald gets a lot more press than his contemporaries like Dresier, John O' Hara and Sinclair Lewis. How does Gatsby hold up against 'Sister Carrie' or 'An American Trajedy' or 'Main Street' or 'Babbitt'?
on “Why Do We Keep Reading the Great Gatsby?” ↗