About this episode
This episode explores Sherwood Anderson's story 'The Egg' and its themes of human drama and character studies.
“Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms.” Depending on who you ask, Sherwood Anderson is either a genius who ushered in a new era of American storytelling or the unfortunate progenitor of utterly forgettable prose. It’s a little like the age-old chicken-and-egg question… it probably can’t be both. Perhaps the divide rests on what one expects from a story. Anderson’s work was born of a life spent in the American Midwest watching small towns fail and family hopes turn into humiliation. But that doesn’t mean his stories were just a drag. The brevity of his perspective and many years in advertising lend a dry humor to his writing that keeps us from getting sucked into the mire. His stories could very well be considered character studies rather than plot-driven escapades. As Anderson himself stated in 1921, “ Perhaps because of a native laziness, I found myself unable to think up plots. To try to do so bored me unspeakably. On the other hand, there were all about me human beings living their lives, and in the process of doing so creating drama… I have tried to clutch at it and reproduce in writing some of that drama…” Human beings, living their lives; we are…
People in this episode
Host: Ruby Love
Topics covered
- American storytelling
- character studies
- human drama
- dry humor
- small town life
Keywords
- Sherwood Anderson
- The Egg
- American Midwest
- storytelling
- character studies
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