_Ulysses_ vs. _The Fountainhead_
Matt Kozusko (mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu)
Fri, 24 Jul 1998 12:25:52 -0400
JDHadden@aol.com wrote:
> Its a lot easier to
> say that you prefer Ulysses to The Fountainhead because it's simply more
> entertaining (which it's not, but that's just an example...)
Oh, but it is. And that's where scholarship is useful. I can prove
that _Ulysses_ is more entertaining than _The Fountainhead_.
To begin with, I have a scholarly list of the top 100 books of the
century. _Ulysses_ ranks number 1, while _The Fountainhead_ isn't even
included.
And last night, I conducted a scholarly experiement. I'm not sure my
procedures (control groups and whatnot) would meet the standards implied
by Dr. Frye, but there's no arguing with the results: on the average, I
laugh out loud roughly 4 times every two pages of _Ulysses_ (that's 4.8
times in the Gabler edition) and drop the book in sheer hysterics about
twice every 50 pages (2.4, Gabler). By contrast, _The Fountainhead_
causes me to swear out loud roughly 6 times every 2 sentences and to try
to flush the book down the toilet about 5 times each chapter.
--
Matt Kozusko mkozusko@parallel.park.uga.edu