Re: JDS Film and TV
Malcolm Lawrence (malcolm@wolfenet.com)
Thu, 13 Nov 1997 21:38:09 -0800
PODESTA,Lesley wrote:
> Malcolm, I agree with your sentiments but I think you're a bit harsh.
> The project of modernism means that we and reinvent ourselves based
> (partly) on our likes/choices and allegiances. These things change...
> but they're are an important part of working out who we "are" and why.
> I love Salinger's stories but depending on who I am (today, tomorrow) I
> like certain ones more or less. Self and identitity (such a core theme
> in all of JDS' works) are constant themes of the modern reader and
> writer, particularly during adolescence or periods of change.
>
> Lesley P.
I perfectly agree with what you're saying (with the possible exception of your use
of the word modern. What you're talking about isn't particularly modern, unless
modern includes the ancient Greeks), but there's a big difference between who or
what your personal favorites are on any given day, month or year, and what or who
is "better." "Better" meaning what, anyway? Financial balance? Number of books
sold? Influence on future writers? Syntax? The use of diphthongs? Universal
themes? Translation into other languages?
And when you're at the level of maturity where you can get into fuming arguments
over whether the 1967 Green Bay Packers were better than the 1972 Miami Dolphins,
you're also at the level of maturity where you can say "Hesse is so much better
than Gurdjieff. Camus is so much better than Spinoza." When in fact ten years down
the road you probably won't even remember which titles of theirs you read.
Art doesn't have anything to do with awards shows. Eventually you get to the point
where you realize that all the classics of art are simply links in an eternal
tradition, forever having conversations with themselves, stretching from the
ancient Chinese and the ancient Greeks up through (to name just a few) Virgil,
Dante, Shakespeare, Joyce and echoing off into forever. To me, comparisons are the
refuge of the insecure. Still, if you really have a point to make, why not write a
thesis or a book about it rather than clogging up mailing lists.