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by john grady-cole

Posted to Utterances on 2002-12-09 08:48:00

Parent message is 336834
sure, youre right, although i was not dismissing peoples judgements against that of critics, a famous american critic (tho not famous enough for me to remember his name) compliled a book of a couple of hundred american writers he felt important. the beats were altogether ignored as a literary movement, with only the exception of burroughs who had a couple of lines designated to him. i am not usin this as a defence of wsb, rather a condemnation of critical judgement. so yes, critics arent the be all and end all of literature, altho i do stand by the fact that they are more qualified to do so (if that doesnt de-humanise literature too much)
however, people who clearly have based judgements purely on enjoyment levels, and use such striking technical analysis to pinpoint his work as that of a ‘buffon’, i feel, cannot judge the merits of a writer. but as you say, to reduce it too far distances the regular person from the books for whom they were written for.

but all in all you made some good points- doesnt your name mean -close to death, or at the point of death? are you ok???