A Revival of Upton Sinclair

One sign of just how deplorable social conditions are may be the way in which filmmakers are drawing upon one of the most effective muckrakers of the early twentieth century as a source of stories. When I wrote, at the end of October, about both the book and film versions of Fast Food Nation, I observed that Richard Linklater's narrative strategy basically stood on the shoulders of Upton Sinclair's novel, The Jungle. This weekend the Los Angeles Film Critics Association announced that their choice of the best film in 2007 was There Will be Blood. Most of the rest of us have not yet had a chance to see this film, let alone any buzz surrounding its release; but what is important in this case is that the film is an adaptation of another Sinclair novel, Oil! (the exclamation mark being part of the title). Perhaps the relative media silence has something to do with the fact that muckraking the oil industry is even more sensitive than muckraking the fast food industry. Ironically, Sinclair was one of those muckrakers who eventually made a difference, primarily because Theodore Roosevelt took the time to read his books. Somehow I just do not see any of our current contenders for the White House investing their time that way, particularly the ones who have decided that campaigning is more important than doing the work in Congress that they were elected to do!