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10 Mar 01 - 11:47 PM (#414976) Subject: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: rube1 Excerpt from "A Novel by Salvador Dali," a critical review by Edmund Wilson. "...The only relatively up-to-date elements are a superficial injection of Freudianism and an overlay of surrealist rhetoric-when, if you follow me, Mr. Dali allows the milliped and Boschesque crustaceans of his hermetic imagination to caress the tentacular algae of his subaqueous and electrified impudicity or the nacreous and colubrine doves of a psychosomatic idealism to circle in shimmering syndromes the facades of a palladian narcisissism." Nobody writes like this anymore. Why is that? |
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11 Mar 01 - 12:07 AM (#414984) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: Sorcha Because we speak languages other than Pig Latin. Or Fake Latin as the case may be. Communication is more important than baffling with bullshit. |
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11 Mar 01 - 07:01 AM (#415096) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: rube1 ask a stupid question...fiddle de dee de di dedo di dum dum diddle diddle dum de do... No really, this was one of the preeminent critics of the twentieth century mocking Salvador Dali's literary style in a humorous parody. He could have come right out and said, "Don't quit your day job, which is painting, Sal," but standards were higher back then. In those days, a critical review was frequently an event in itself. I just posted the quote because I found it hilarious and thought maybe some of the literati out there would, too. |
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11 Mar 01 - 01:35 PM (#415269) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: SINSULL Mean, very mean. And very funny. What was Dali's reaction? He couldn't have let it go. |
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11 Mar 01 - 02:03 PM (#415289) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: GUEST,Wavestar I think it's great, having read some of Dali's writing... And people do write like that today. The results get sent to the Bulwar Lytton contest. -J |
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11 Mar 01 - 02:07 PM (#415296) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: rube1 I think he just took his lumps. The whole review is like that. It goes on for a page and a half. Amazingly respectful, actually, in a farcical sense. |
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11 Mar 01 - 02:17 PM (#415304) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: Amos One of the reason that sort of writing is less used today is because of the increase in the speedc of communication and the increase of rates of change. The use of Mencken's style not only requies a florid, top-heavy and Latinate vocabulary; it also requires a slower-moving rate of new information, in which the crystalized frames of reference last long enough for huge flowery terms like his tomean something in reference. As a simple example, consider how long it took Freud's (and later, Jung's) models to acheive wide-spread circulation such that referring to someone's remarks as "repressed sibling rivalry", just for example, would have any meaning. Since that day (about when Mencken flourished) the introduction of new paradigms and terms into major fields such as psychology and sociology has accelerated dramatically -- and even the acceleration has accelerated. This has made a more flexible, and I think leaner and more basic but adaptable, vocabulary more valuable generally than one with high spires of condensed thought anchored to narrower substance. FWIW. IMNSHO. A |
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11 Mar 01 - 04:52 PM (#415411) Subject: RE: BS: Literary Quote: Dali's novel reviewed From: rube1 The Bulwar Lytton contest? Sounds interesting. While it is true that communication of ideas today demands a rather more direct means of expression than the style utilized in the quote, or in Mencken, for example, to be effective, there is still no shortage of obfuscation in modern discourse, in journalism, or in essays intended to exemplify precision. In the rush to get "information" across, in order to reach the greatest number, too often the result becomes a homogenized reflection of society's middle road. Stylistic individuality is often viewed as indulgence, and more often than not, it is. But there will always be new voices setting standards outside the norm. That's my optimistic view, anyway. The collection of Edmund Wilson's reviews, "Classics and Commercials: A Literary Chronicle of the 1940's" contains a full number of incisive, entertaining and intellectually charged examples of what literary criticism at its best. Only the Dali review is consciously impenetrable. |