> 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.
-- ************************************** 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 ************************************** # # To unsubscribe, say "unsubscribe rara-avis" to majordomo@icomm.ca. # The web pages for the list are at http://www.vex.net/~buff/rara-avis/.