Democratic? Can you explain that, Miker. Most editorial
decisions are made by no more than a handful of people.
Al
----- Original Message -----
From: Michael Robison
To:
rara-avis-l@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tuesday, July 11, 2006 2:08 PM
Subject: Re: RARA-AVIS: Re: Spillane and
misogyny
Jim wrote in response to an Agatha Christic
comment:
And I largely agree with that assessment. But
she's
still read and enjoyed all over the world. More
than
two decades after her death, she's still one of
the
most successful mystery writers there is.
She's
talked about, studied, written about, adapted
into
other media. She, too, despite her
stick-figure
characters, stilted dialog, dated attitudes, etc,
has
stood the test of time.
*****************
The appeal of the test of time definition
for
literature lies at least partly in its
democratic
methodology. It denies the final decision to
the
elitist critic. If a work is still read by
many
people many years after its inception, then it
gets
the literature tag. And the elitist critics can
rail
all they wish about bad style or shallow
characters or
unimaginative themes.
There are two conclusions, at opposite ends of
a
spectrum, that can be drawn from this. The first
is
that the elitist critic might be passing over
some
significant elements in works which make them
resonate
down through the ages. The second is that the
common
people are simply clueless as to what amounts to
a
good book. This roughly equates to the
bourgeoisie
regret that the unwashed masses were ever taught
how
to read.
miker
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