Posted on 04/21/2011 2:43:04 PM PDT by Borges
Or maybe you had a teacher who loved the book and passed that enthusiasm and love on to you.
Jack Vance will turn 95 in about four months. He has to be the last living significant American SF writer of his generation.
What gets me about Vance is that, according to Vance, he only ever read “sci-fi” very early on in his career. We’re talking “weird tales” era, stuff like Clark Ashton Smith and CL Moore from the 30’s. If I recall, he didn’t really read anybody else of from own generation, at least speculative fiction/sci-fi wise. He was really good buddies with Poul Anderson and Frank Herbert, and still is with Robert Silverberg. But he claims tha he has never read any of their work.
Freegards
That might be how he’s referred to but that doesn’t make it. When was the last time a Shakespeare book sold 7 million copies? With 49 books published and 350 million sold that’s what Stephen King averages. Music students aren’t voluntarily listening, and they might not be doing Beethoven today, it could be a Mozart day, but on the top 40 radio stations it’s ALWAYS Gaga day. All you’ve got to do is look at how symphony attendance is plummeting in this country to know that even low rent rock bands are probably more popular than any given classical guy.
The fact that you even care what’s “high art” mean you are 100% in the lit nerd camp. Doesn’t matter what else you’ve red only the literati even mention high art.
Shakespeare has sold much more than seven million copies. Not to mention books ABOUT Shakespeare. In the long run he outsells everyone. And has much more of an impact on people of all stripes.
Music students are voluntarily music students so they went in with the intent to study Beethoven and such. There are free concerts in the park all over the country that draw large crowds. You think the way you do because classical is completely ignored by the mainstream media so you assume it isn’t popular. It’s far and away the most popular form of music in the world. For instance, Opera is hugely popular. Try getting a ticket to the Met. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are played in countries that don’t have a clue about some American pop tart. But classical musicians will tell you that even though they play to sell-out halls, talk shows of all stripes routinely tell them “we don’t do Classical” It’s an illusion.
It’s all equal huh? Michaelangelo’s David isn’t any better than the Golden Arches at the local Mickey Ds?
Shakespeare had a head start, so gross sales in an unfare comparison. But new publication sales is a fair comparison. The next book King publishes will sell around 7 million copies, the next Shakespeare book published will not. Thus we know, as a patently obvious FACT that King is more popular, period.
Music students aren’t necessarily voluntary. I knew a lot of kids growing up taking various classes because mommy and daddy said so, and that’s a situation that hasn’t changed any. You know why the classical concerts in the park are free? Because people won’t pay to see them. Even dive bar bands can get people to fork over a couple bucks to see them. It’s no illusion, selling out a hall isn’t that hard, selling out tour after tour after tour is. The Moody Blues are going to get a bigger audience next month in Tucson than Tchaikovsky, and nobody listens to the Moody Blues anymore.
I never said things were equal, I only said that only literati care about the distinction “high art”. It’s a very specific phrase that is only used by a very specific crowd. I would say that David is better than the arches, but I would never use the phrase “high art” to describe David or anything else, being not a lit nerd it’s simply not in my lexicon.
It’s not just a Lit term it’s for all the Arts. Serious Music and Visual Art people would use it to. It’s a general aesthetic designation. Shakespeare doesn’t produce anything anymore so obviously new material will outsell a reprint of something that many people already own. But I bet that Hamlet sells more copies yearly than a 1970s King novel like ‘Salem’s Lot’. And there are a lot more books ABOUT Hamlet than there ever will be about any King work new or old.
I’m talking about older music students. Teens and up. It’s still a lot. Star Classical instrumentalists like Evgeny Kissin and Lang Lang DO sell out tour after tour. And they are more popular worldwide than ANY pop band.
Literati don’t just read, like all labels it’s best not to take it literally and just understand the grouping. The same guys that read a lot of Joyce also tend to go to the symphony and art openings. And call things “high art” and talk about “aesthetic designation”.
Hamlet gets taught in high school. Being mandatory reading for a significant chunk of the population helps sales. But I bet in 2004, when the mini-series came out, Salems Lot did really well.
I’m talking about the general populace, the people that make things popular. There are more top 40 listeners than classical listeners, just gotta look at the radio dial to see that. Thus top 40 acts have more listeners than classical, which is why there’s more competition to reach their ears. I never said it wasn’t a lot of people, actually I said DIRECTLY that thanks to the large number of people on the planet you can be unpopular and still have MANY listeners, but you won’t as big an audience as somebody popular. Michael Jackson died right before he was going to do a 50 date stand in London, and he was a has been, has Lang Lang ever done a 50 date stand? Not more popular than any pop band.
I don’t understand why you’re so worked about about this. It’s frankly beneath you. You KNOW full well these things aren’t that popular, you’ve POSTED articles discussing the situation. Stop taking it personally, and stop making this foolish stand against simple obvious facts that you know are true. None of the classics are more poplar than the current tops, and it’s been that way for ages, and it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future, and saying otherwise is quite simply BSing. You’re smarter than that, I’m done with this stupid discussion. If you want to get back to something where you get to show your intellect great, but if you insist on continuing this display that makes you look stupid do it alone.
Radio stations aren’t a fair comparison as there aren’t any Classical stations in most places. I think there are only about a half dozen left in North America. Classical radio declined as radio itself has become relegated primarily to drive time when people only listen for a brief period while they’re in the car (enough for a hit or two but not a symphony). When the whole family gathered around the radio in the living room there were a lot of Classical on the radio.
I’m not worked up just making what seems like fairly straightforward points. That being that worldwide Beethoven is more popular than anything in the Top 40 right now.
I was a slow student but finally caught on. Made them work for it though, didn’t I? Lol. Wish they had had time to walk me through several other classics I’ve never been able to get through on my own.
According to the Washington Post, 25% of Americans do not read one book a year. So if you read even one that’s more than 25% of our fellow citizens read. The article stated 9-15 books per year is average.
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