Robert Elkin wrote:
> I mean this in the best of spirits, of
course,
> but--You Are Wrong, my friend, and your
political
> comments appended are naive in the extreme. If
you
> think the "right" is actually "pro-family" any
more
> than is the "left," you are conflating the
empty
> speech of politicians in the pay of big
business
> with
> those of real people such as yourself and
myself.
> But
> then again Hammett said it all a great deal
better
> than I could ever hope to in Red Harvest, so
I'll
> defer to that example (or do you scorn DH
for
> "leftist" activity & disregard him?)
****************** And I accept it in the best of spirit,
Robert. I agree that the specific comments you refer to
are
"naive in the extreme." They were meant as a tongue-in-cheek
response to Joy's post. You go on to mention that my
assessment of the differences between the left and right is
inaccurate. That might be true also, but it doesn't really
concern me. It wasn't my intention to provide a concise
analysis of the different modes of American political
thought, but instead to describe a well-established political
stereotype which Vachss is playing to for all he's worth. If
it seems like an oversimplified caricature or parody, I can
only shrug my shoulders and point to the text.
Your impression that I object to Vachss's writing because of
its political slant is mistaken. I never said that I didn't
like Vachss's writing because it was leftist. In fact, I
believe that I have stated that I enjoyed his early works. My
objection to his work came later on when it became too
heavy-handed. I noted earlier that I believe that all fiction
has a sub-text. When the sub-text becomes too strong, fiction
has a tendency to degenerate into vulgar propaganda. I might
agree with Ayn Rand's objectivism, but that doesn't lead me
to praise Galt's tiresome monologue at the end of ATLAS
SHRUGGED.
Concerning your comment about whether I scorn a writer for
his actions, I would respond that for the most part I'm not
interested in how they act. I'm interested in how they
write.
miker
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : 17 Jan 2006 EST