At 07:10 PM 05/09/2006 -0400, Mark wrote:
>Can you really think of many authors whose worldviews
are inconsistent
>over their output?
And then he wrote:
"Crap, now I'm agreeing with Jim against Kevin. What's
happening to me?"
This is not a case of correct or incorrect. Culture works in
an (imperfect) circle, with the individual affected by the
culture, overtly and by assumption, and individuals or
sometimes groups affect the culture, either by taking up the
common assumptions or rejecting them, usually by conscious
design. Culture is in a constant state of flux, changing and
reacting to change.
So I may assume HB&N is largely an urban form and have
people getting about mostly by car, sometimes by public
transit, but not very often the latter because that's not as
efficient or flexible for following or chasing the bad guys.
I only need look out my window here in The Hammer to note
that auto-culture has been a common assumption at least
sometime in the recent past, and I may reflect that without
thinking about it much one way or the other. And readers may
not even pay much attention to it, because it's assumed
that's the way it is. Until somebody writes something like
"The Bicycling Detective" and perceptions begin to change. Or
maybe perceptions were already changing and the author is
reflecting them. I mean, I remember how funny and unlikely it
seemed to me when I first noted Moses Wine tooling about in a
clapped-out Volkswagen. How's he gonna win the chase
scene?
Culture and it's common assumptions are moving targets. They
change. Authors' individual assumptions and opinions change.
Some folks learn and understand new tricks. Some minds are
closed.
Add to that the fact that I have no way of knowing what
anyone is really thinking except by way of what they say or
do. I don't know that any of you folks exist except by the
e-mails you post. Jim says he's right wing, and I'd say his
posts reflect that, but he could be a closet Trotskyite
playing and laughing at the lot of us. Only thing I can say
in response to that is that if it looks like a duck and
quacks like a duck, it ain't a Trot even if it thinks it is.
Which may be Al's point in all this, that it's entirely a
matter of perception. But I'm inclined to my circular point
of view, or the idea that a book is a collaboration between
the writer and the reader, and that communication between the
two always begins, in fact requires, a common set of
assumptions. Those assumptions could vary quite a bit,
however, from book to book, not to mention the other
media.
I'm still fascinated, however, by books and ideas that
knowingly play with these communications patterns. I think
Memento might be one example. I think the new right,
generally, has gained significant political mileage by doing
exactly this, too. Last essay I read along these lines was a
claim that, going back to origins, the new right is actually
the new left. I guess Wag the Dog might be the fiction
example- was there a book? Seems to me that any fiction
written about this trend would have to be noir. Whether
that's left or right wing, I don't know that I care. I've
never been good at team sports.
Best, Kerry
>
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