Subject: Re: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: Jim Rovira (jrovira@drew.edu)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 21:26:39 EDT
heh...depends on what you define as western literature :)
But still a pretty interesting observation.
Jim
"L. Manning Vines" wrote:
>
> Micaela said:
> << If Brittney Spears can appeal to a wider audience than say...Bob Dylan,
> does
> that make her qualitatively different/better? >>
> And:
> << But isn't Holden, too, "angsty and self-absorbed"? >>
>
> I think you've misunderstood my meaning. I cannot argue that Brittany
> Spears is somehow better than Bob Dylan because she appeals to a wider
> audience (although I'm not sure how it would affect your point that Bob
> Dylan has probably sold more albums than Brittany Spears ever will, and that
> his albums will doubtless still be selling decades from now), nor would I
> argue that Catcher is better because it appeals to a wider audience. I
> think that Catcher is better because it DESCRIBES a wider audience
> (likewise, Bob Dylan's music describes a wider audience that Brittany
> Spears's, regardless of her current following).
>
> I'm not very concerned with what demographics are reading what books. But
> it seems to me that although Achilles is half-god and therefore quite unlike
> us, his rage ("rage" is the first word of the Iliad, and of the recorded
> Western literature) and selfishness and poutiness are universal. We can all
> learn about ourselves, we can learn about humanity itself, by studying
> Homer's depiction of Achilles. Whether a bunch of people we don't like --
> idiots or phonies or murderous lunatics -- are reading and loving the Iliad,
> or if they hate the Iliad, doesn't ultimately amount to much. The quality
> of the Iliad is not evidenced by a love for it shared by all people, but by
> its description of aspects of all people.
>
> I will quote my previous message: ". . . literature has the capacity to
> show us things about our common humanity -- I think that Holden does this,
> and that Zooey does not. This is not to say that Zooey is worthless as a
> character or a story.
> But to my estimation, the worth he and his story have is not in the same
> ballpark as Holden and his."
>
> -robbie
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