Post #136 of my #bookcovers and #firstsentences homage on #Instagram is my secondhand copy of the 1946 #BantamBooks edition of #JohnSteinbeck's #TheGrapesOfWrath.

I read this book during my classics catch-up phase in my late twenties, and it's one of my all-time favourites. However, Steinbeck seemed more sympathetic to the plight of the drought and debt-stricken Oakies forced from their lands than the Native Americans dispossessed before them. And I found his ending confusing!

But hey, it's still a classic, has a great cover, and a fine scene-setting opening paragraph:

To the red country and part of the gray country of Oklahoma, the last rains came gently, and they did not cut the scarred earth. The plows crossed and recrossed the rivulet marks. The last rains lifted the corn quickly and scattered weed colonies and grass along the sides of the roads so that the gray country and the dark red country began to disappear under a green cover. In the last part of May the sky grew pale and the clouds that had hung in high puffs for so long in the spring were dissipated. The sun flared down on the growing corn day after day until a line of brown spread along the edge of each green bayonet. The clouds appeared, and went away, and in a while they did not try any more. The weeds grew darker green to protect themselves, and they did not spread any more. The surface of the earth crusted, a thin hard crust, and as the sky became pale, so the earth became pale, pink in the red country and white in the gray country.

Link to the post on #Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bj6X5KNlkS8/

The Drapes of Wrath

A husband buys drapes for the living room, but his wife thinks they are ugly. She decides to buy her own drapes to replace his. Hilarity ensues.

#TheGrapesOfWrath #drapes #HilarityEnsues #CorruptedMovieTitle

My favourite lines on my new solo album is on the track 'Dust and Desire' - "As the hunger bites they’ll call you a liar, ‘til your skin and bones are hung on the wire". It is dedicated to #30pLee , Ian Duncan Smith, The Daily Express, and anyone lying through their back teeth by telling you that nobody is suffering or going hungry or cold during this cost of living crisis. #HistoryRepeating #ToryBritain #TheGrapesOfWrath

You ever hear songs that take you somewhere else, maybe not even where the artist expected? Every time I hear this song, I think about “The Grapes of Wrath”; more specifically, the character of Tom Joad.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2iSQGWpy0qY

#Music #TheGrapesOfWrath #Steinbeck #Unintended #DustBowl

83 years ago:
The Grapes of Wrath (US)
Tom Joad returns to his home after a jail sentence to find his family kicked out of their farm due to foreclosure. He catches up with them on his Uncle’s farm, and joins them the next day as they head for California and a new life... Hopefully.
1940-03-15
https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/596
#TheGrapesofWrath #JohnFord #HenryFonda #JohnCarradine #OZWhitehead #20thCenturyFox #ClassicMovies

#καλημερα!

#σημερα είναι ημέρα ενοποίησης των ρουμανικών πριγκιπάτων στη #romania και εθνική ημέρα κοριτσιών στην #india.

#σανσημερα το 1859 η Βλαχία και η Μολδαβία ενώνονται σε προσωπική σύνδεση με τον πρίγκιπα #AlexandruIoanCuza.

Το 1908 οργανώνεται στην #england το πρώτο τμήμα προσκόπων.

Το 1935 η μπύρα πωλείται πρώτη φορά σε κουτάκι.

To 1940 κάνει πρεμιέρα η ταινία #thegrapesofwrath του #JohnSteinbeck.

(Συνεχίζεται)

Souder references this passage from chapter 28 of The Grapes of Wrath:

“Git so I hate to think. Go diggin’ back to a ol’ time to keep from thinkin’. Seems like our life’s over an’ done.’’

#steinbeck #thegrapesofwrath #bookstodon #williamsouder #johnsteinbeck

John Steinbeck Biographer, William Souder on The Grapes of Wrath [1939] “So begins Steinbeck’s greatest novel—in a drought. It would end in a flood. These are forces of nature, and what happens in between—during one migrant family’s arduous journey to California—is the oldest human story: the struggle to survive and hold together. #bookstodon #steinbeck #thegrapesofwrath #1930s #immigration

#TheGrapesOfWrath – #JohnSteinbeck

[...]while his novels are dark and not particularly optimistic, Steinbeck always portrays some redeeming characters and/or deeds, which allow you to see the good in some people. The Grapes of Wrath tells the story of the Great Depression, and contains some of the best descriptions I have ever read of how screwed up the capitalist system is. Many of the situations described in the #book speak about the relationship between the powerful and the powerless[...]

#7filmstoknowme +7

#TheGrapesofWrath
#AbelGance1927Napolean
#Amelie
#TheGodfather
#MeanStreets
#Interstellar
#WithnailandI

Tonight's shuffle so far has included

#PearlJam
#REM
#FrankTurner
#Beck
#FrightenedRabbit
#Mumford&Sons
#Soundgarden
#54-40
#yeahYeahYeahs
#MidnightOil
#BrokenSocialScene
#TheBlackKeys
#Nirvana
#AliceInChains
#TheGrapesOfWrath
#LeonardCohen
#TheSmashingPumpkins
#TheProclaimers
#SilversunPickups
#TeganAndSara
#Bush

... and looking at what's next I guess I'll end the evening with #TheCure

#nowplaying