Subject: RE: Reference to JDS by Paul Thomas Anderson
From: L. Manning Vines (lmanningvines@hotmail.com)
Date: Wed May 08 2002 - 15:58:28 EDT
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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