Was Sinclair Lewis accused of being too cynical?
Cynical? Perhaps some saw it that way. I preferred to think of it as realism, tinged with a profound disappointment. I believed in the potential of America, in the ideals it proclaimed, but I saw how easily those ideals could be corrupted by greed, by the desperate need to conform, by the shallow pursuit of 'success.' My aim wasn't to tear down for the sake of tearing down, but to expose the rot so that perhaps, just perhaps, we might rebuild on firmer ground. If the truth, as I saw it, was unpalatable, then the problem lay not with the observation, but with the reality itself.
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