Posted on 07/18/2005 9:57:30 PM PDT by Eurotwit
Well, they both meet the "bad haircut" requirement.
Probably the greatest four-word book review of all time. ;)
Sounds like Spinster is speaking from experience.
The "boy's own" sort of adventure writing popular in Victorian England had a good deal more merit.
This elderly blowhard is dealing with a very roseate memory here. I am quite proud of my Biggles collection, but it is not highbrow, supposed-to-be-uplifting literature of the sort that this poseur appears to admire. A lot of the genre to which he refers is simply dreadful.
Thomas Mann sends Hans Castorp to the magic mountain of a tuberculosis sanitarium
And I dare say that Thomas Mann is read by no one today but those who are forced at gunpoint (or a course syllabus's blunt end) to do so, or by fellow far-leftists.
- but it is the reader is captured and transformed.
If you're going to be pedantic, you need to watch your grammar, Spengles. Otherwise you just seem like a cranky undergraduate trying to sound portentous.
How reassuring it is that the ecclesiastical authorities of Auckland have taken the initiative to correct the pope on this matter.
Let me get this straight: news reports (we know what they're worth) of a private letter (if it's private, what the hell is it doing in news repoers?) written by a guy who later became Pope (but wasn't at the time) expressing some unspecified dislike ("disparaging" for what?) of Rowling's books, ought to be theologically binding on Catholics everywhere, because this anonymoid doesn't like the books either. Left hanging is what Ratzinger didn't like about the books: the cutesy names? The seven-volume serialization? The illustrations?
I was unaware that a personal preference expressed by a cardinal suddenly becomes an ex cathedra pointof doctrine if his peers should elevate him to the Papacy.
This theologically illogical bit, though, does give us another couple of clues to the real identity of Spengler. Most likely a New Zealander, and a Catholic, and a crank -- perhaps one of those priests who indulges himself in academia, having been relieved of parish work for buggery, alcoholism, pilfering from the collection basket, or something similar.
Whatever he is, one thing hs is clearly not, and that's a Jesuit -- or the Society of Jesus is in a steeper deline than anything else in the West. (I am not Catholic, but I did have the benefit of some Jesuit schooling).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Today's hero: Poop Foggy Nog, the eggregious P.I.G., and a whole array of other moral lepers.
I think you overstate the case. To an element of our society, as illustrated by Hollyweird today and the gangsta-rap bling-bling culture, those schmoes are heroes. But only to an element of our society.
When Nixon called for "Peace with Honor" and reached out to what he called "the Silent Majority," he was speaking in political terms, but the case is more true today in cultural terms. Hollywood may not be delivering John Wayne, but the hunger for John Wayne is there.
While Spengles rags on the mote of popular entertainment, he misses the beam: what purports to be popular entertainment has probably never been delivered at such a high level of variety and quality in history, although some particular media (film, TV) are struggling. But what passes for high culture has never been lower: the guys today that would be the 21st Century's Goethe, Shakespeare, Haydn or Rembrandt are producing abysmal, ghastly rubbish.
I would suppose that in 100 years people will still read Rowling's books and, for example, some of Steven King's, and universities will teach classes on them. But the people who win Nobel prizes for fiction today, will then be read only by specialist academicians, and insufferable snobs.
(I note that the examples of 17th-19th Century greats I cited above are accessible to far more than pointy headed Spengler types now).
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F
Sounds like the hat fits...
Because I really enjoy the books.
Your mileage may vary, and that's fine with me. You've probably got things you really like that are beyond me, too.
Buddy Holly and the Crickets Battle
the Occult Witch Dorks of Hogwarts Academy
I spent my youth reading Bukowski. I would not suggest that to anyone.
Same here. Liked the movies, though. Go figure.
Ouch!
fwiw - I thought this was an interesting article - writing and reading about writing isn't for everyone. I like some of the points made.
ROTFL... Translation: "I own a thesaurus."
Anyway, one of his premises is false. HP does not get his power from his "inner feelings." Consequently, the rest of this sophistry is built on sand.
Ping
Waldo or Sean Lennon?
Reminds me of when in the early 80's, parents (mostly Moms) standing in long line at midnight to buy a Cabbage Patch doll. It's a fad...just a fad...
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