"Man is born for action Not to be occupied, and not to exist, are for him the same thing." - Voltaire
I completed my perusal of "The American Scholar" for Summer 2007 and I have to admit it's got a lot of something but I'm not entirely sure what it is. I simply could not wrap my interest around the lengthy article about Alger Hiss that made the cover. Something about such contemporary history doesn't ring my bell. The Love on Campus article was, frankly, idiotic at best and argued inanely for far too long. The other non-fiction bits I found acceptable though I'm not sure I honestly believe that a stroke victim who lost the entire speech center of his brain recovered well enough to write so well as in the 'mem, mem, mem' article. Perhaps I'm being overly cynical but that seems miraculous. The fiction submissions for this quarter were phenomenal and make me remember just how engaging modern fiction has become. Of course it helps that fiction not written 150 years ago is much more personally relatable but the overall quality is much better than one might expect. The icing to the current issue for me though was the article on Fred Allen. It really made me want to go back and start listening to old time radio again. Quite a fascinating personage...
Alright, Little Women is back on the shelf. I'll admit that I could not take another 200 pages of literary criticism but I did skim enough of it to realize that the opinions on this seemingly simple text are bogglingly complex. Some, of course, laud the book but the majority seem to find some overwhelming fault. A few point out that the book gives young readers completely the wrong idea about how life really works. I can see this argument as, except for the long-foreshadowed death of Beth, the whole work is almost sickeningly sweet. If women of any century expect life to go as described by Alcott then they are in for a rude awakening. More common than this complaint is the gutting of Jo. She goes from an independent and vibrant woman to a simpering wife. Some reviewers go so far as to call this 'murder' and in a respect it is. The book does seem to indicate strongly that for women there are only really two choices in life. Either you get married [Meg, Amy, Jo] or you're dead [Beth] (or as good as). No matter how intelligent or independent you are the eventual destination is marriage at which point you're considered secondary to your husband. I can see how this would not sit well with any feminists in the crowd. In any case, devilishly complex when you get down to it. Jason and the Golden Fleece stands next in the reading queue.
I'm sure you're ready for your verbal yoga for today... "Fred Allen, that coruscating personality of radio and screen, always noted that the artifice by which Warner Brothers denied the verisimilitude of Foghorn Leghorn and his Senator Claghorn was appalling. Sadly the complex palimpsest of the American legal system never allowed him to gain any recompense for the theft."
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