Dead American Writers

So can anybody tell me why this song is called dead american writers? Where the fuck are their names? :( Still it's a good song.

This song is fantastic! When I think about Dead American Writers (Hawthorne, Twain, Hughes, Thoreau, Fitzgerald, Salinger, Steinbeck, Morrison etc) their canonized works have in common is that they are all revolutionary social criticisms. They each put a mirror up to society and show us through humor, satire, irony and metaphor our follies. In Huck Finn, Mark Twain through Horatian satire attacks the institution of slavery and Christian hypocrisy through a lowly protagonist who in the end chooses to set out for Indian territory rather than become part of a society full of ignorance folly and greed “You've got to choose your own way out of here”. The book was and still is in some places banned, for various reasons because it “rocked the boat.” Steinbeck and Morrison do this through symbolic gestures as well. Each of these writers at one point or another has had their works banned by populations that didn’t like their social critiques.

Let us consider Fitzgerald for a moment and his great American novel, The Great Gatsby. One can’t help to think of the valley of ashes which is supposed to represent the death of the American dream. Wilson who represents the Working class American male is “waiting for a spark” and struggling just to make ends meat while the wealthy are indulging in greed and idleness. This is a classic theme of American Modernity in literature. In the end of the novel Nick, our protagonist in the book certainly leaves the reader with a final image of Gatsby who represents the American dream as “smashed up love and crime.”

Still–the chorus is a mystery to me. I would love to hear some opinions.

To me, it also seems to be about an aspiring writer who looks up to dead American writers. "I've been waiting for the spark myself" is like he is saying he is waiting for the spark of a really great idea. And the chourus is like he is saying that as a fan of the writers, he knows everything about them, every word of every book, everything about their lives, and the whole song shows this. I heard this song by chance on Waterloo Road, and I've downloaded it and had it on repeat since, it's absolutely beautiful. And it makes me want to read The Great Gatsy yet again =D

this is what i got for the last part:

I've been choking on the bones and tears You are the smoking gun that thrown the years A broken heart won't get you far enough I'll be up waiting through the tire and rough

I interpreted it as, "You are the smoking gun, the throne, the years."

in the album's booklet with lyrics it's: "you are the smoking gun, the throne, the years"

great song, one of my favourites

Going to agree with an aspiring writer's dream; however, I feel like the line 'A broken heart won't get you far enough' is referring to the idea that some of the great writers (Fitzgerald in particular) wrote their best works whilst horridly in love rather than in heartbreak.

Couldn't be sure, but.