Re: _Ulysses_ vs. _The Fountainhead_
Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Fri, 24 Jul 1998 09:39:36 -0700
Matt Kozusko wrote:
> 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.
Literature is not sports. Who cares?
Malcs