Thanks, Mark -- what about "statesider" for estadounidense,
"unitedstatesian"? Would that work? Not quite.
Stateside (in American, uh oh, Heritage Dictionary) is:
1. Of or in the continental United States.
2. Alaska. Of or in the 48 contiguous states of the United States.
I can kind of stand it, statesider. Kind of. But
(a) it excludes our colonized Alaskans and Hawaiians and
(b) of course it doesn't pack the emotional wallop of "American."
I mean, Tammy Wynette and George Jones are (or were in her case) not
statesiders. They're Murricans -- thanks, Hal.
It's like "man." It's like Popeye. It just am what it am.
This is the tyranny and pleasure of language.
Rachel
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Mark Weiss
> Sent: Tuesday, September 11, 2007 7:43 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: America's Guardian Myths: Bowering and USAmericans
>
> A really fine interview, Rachel.
>
> My problem, such as it is (I actually like my footnoted usage, feels
> like a little mischief) is that most of the available terms are too
> quirky for the intended audience, hopefully the general reader (tho
> I'd be happy enough with the sargeant reader). "Citizens" or
> "residents" of the US doesn't work--would require too many
> qualifications. What my first paragraph talks about is a cultural
> myth that I have to undermine. It is a cultural myth (or rather a set
> of cultural myths), though I know lots of individual US cits or
> residents who are less starry-eyed about Cuba than Ry Cooder, and
> less dumb than George Bush.
>
> Here's the first bit:
>
> Relations with Cuba have preoccupied the North American
> imagination[i] far more than one might expect, given the island's
> small size and minimal power. North American understanding of Cuba
> has, at the same time, been obscured by mythologies of both the right
> and the left, in which Cubans have also been known to indulge. Cuba
> has been imagined as a place simpler than our own, whose people are
> less inhibited and more passionate, friendly to strangers and prone
> to dancing in the street, a land strangely set apart in a childhood
> fantasy, as evidenced by the opulent hulks that cruise its streets.
> For those of the left, there's the equally simplified Cuba of heroes,
> where the new man, freed from the shackles of exploitive cultures,
> has managed to create a society based on cooperation and compassion
> rather than greed, despite the opposition of the giant to the north.
> The reality has always been more complex.
>
>
> [i] With apologies to Canadian readers, I have used "North American"
> to indicate a citizen of the United States. Most Latin Americans find
> it annoyingly presumptuous that we call ourselves Americans to the
> exclusion of the hemisphere's other inhabitants. Thus far the English
> language offers no equivalent to the Spanish estadounidense,
> "unitedstatesian."
>
>
> Writing anything about Cuba is a tightrope walk.
>
> Mark
>
>
>
> At 08:36 AM 9/11/2007, you wrote:
> >Peter wrote:
> >
> > > How does Bowering deal with this?
> >
> >I ask George about this whole subject in the interview we
> did for Jacket 33.
> >One of my questions begins:
> >
> >'As I think you know I've got no quarrel with your take on
> the arrogance of
> >empire or really with "USAmerican," except that I always find myself
> >involuntarily cycling through all the poems it would have ruined if
> >USAmericans had adopted it earlier: "The pure products of
> USAmerica / go
> >crazy," "I hear USAmerica singing, the varied carols I
> hear," "Let USAmerica
> >be USAmerica again." It's so corporate - which is very
> appropriate on one
> >level, but as language it curls my ear.'
> >
> >To read his answers:
> >
> >http://jacketmagazine.com/33/loden-bowering-iv.shtml
> >
> >Rachel Loden
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics
> > > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Peter Cudmore
> > > Sent: Monday, September 10, 2007 8:58 AM
> > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > Subject: Re: America's Guardian Myths
> > >
> > > The thing is not to find convenient terms of abuse, but
> > > simply a precise yet
> > > concise way of speaking. 'American' fits the bill for
> > > concision, but not for
> > > precision.
> > >
> > > How does Bowering deal with this?
> > >
> > > P
> > >
> > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics
> > > [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> > > > Behalf Of Douglas Barbour
> > > > Sent: 10 September 2007 16:05
> > > > To: [log in to unmask]
> > > > Subject: Re: America's Guardian Myths
> > > >
> > > > That's precisely why I try to remember to follow our
> > > ex-Poet Laureate
> > > > when it's called for. But of course we are all
> Norteamericanos....
> > > >
> > > > Doug
> > > > On 8-Sep-07, at 9:28 PM, Halvard Johnson wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Just don't let George Bowering catch you
> > > > > calling USAmericans Americans.
> > > > Douglas Barbour
> > > > 11655 - 72 Avenue NW
> > > > Edmonton Ab T6G 0B9
> > > > (780) 436 3320
> > > > http://www.ualberta.ca/~dbarbour/
> > > >
> > > > Latest book: Continuations (with Sheila E Murphy)
> > > > http://www.uap.ualberta.ca/UAP.asp?LID=41&bookID=664
> > > >
> > > > Someone to talk to, for God's sake, some-
> > > > thing to love that will never hit back
> > > >
> > > > Phyllis Webb
> > >
>
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