Re: RARA-AVIS: reality vs. romance

Robert E. Skinner (rskinner@mail.xula.edu)
Mon, 19 Oct 1998 08:41:29 -0500 fwillard@bellsouth.net wrote:

> I don't think this is as much a case of life imitating art as it is
both life and art mining the romantic stripe that seems to run through
parts of our culture.>

Fred--

I think you're on to something. I was listening to a Jack Kerouac tape
last night and marvelling at how he took descriptions of the seedier
parts of San Francisco (at least 30 years ago or more) and invested them
with a kind of romantic aura. It's a talent certain writers have, I
think--seeing the romantic image beneath the prosaic, making a dirty,
neon-lit street a place where anything can happen, turning a loser, at
least momentarily, into something noble. There's a certain reality to
it because occasionally these things happen in real life, but at the
same time, it's a typically American fantasy that takes the place of a
Beowulf or a Hercules.

-- 
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Robert E. Skinner, Director
Xavier University of Louisiana Library
7325 Palmetto Street
New Orleans, LA 70125
(504) 483-7303 (voice)
(504) 485-7917 (FAX)
e-mail: rskinner@mail.xula.edu
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