The corpse is then set in its accustomed place in the family living room, with a glass, an apple or a cigarette in its hand, its favorite phonograph records are played, its picture taken. Then follows the funeral. All such phenomena are unconscious reflections of the American view of life. Whether one is putting makeup on corpses or apples is immaterial. When a people wash themselves so much outwardly, says Thomas Wolfe, inwardly they must be very slovenly indeed.
Washing promotes health and well-being, washing prolongs life.
The healthier you are and the longer you live, the more pleasure you can squeeze out of the material paradise. Our participation in America's view of life I call America within us. The heavenly, new America, independent of time and space. The earthly America is a place where thinking and feeling human beings are worse off than anywhere else in the world. You don't have to be a specialist in American literature to arrive at that idea.