Re: Best last lines

Mike Schilling <mscottschilling@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>William December Starr wrote:
>> nebusj-@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Joseph Nebus) said:
>>> Well, offhand, I think there's a fair body of evidence to suggest
>>> that Charles Dickens was appreciated by at least some of the
>>> reading public in his time.
>>>
>>> I think Mark Twain had a couple admirers too.  Maybe enough to
>>> fill a concert hall or something.
>>
>> You've misread me -- I fully agree that Dickens, Clemens, etc., were
>> very popular in their day; the point I was trying to raise is that
>> today isn't their day anymore.
>
>Are you seriously saying that no one can enjoy Twain these days? 

No, he's saying that it would be a bit difficult to fill a concert hall by
advertising a reading from Twain these days, or to get a Charles Dickens
novel serialized in a major newspaper. That sort of thing.

Yes, they're classics, and reading them can provide a good bit of
enjoyment -
but much of the reading public would never ever encounter them if it were
not
that they ARE considered classics, and are pushed on captive high-school
and
college audiences in English cl*****/courses. How many of Dickens'
contem****aries that were, say, half as enjoyable to read, and one-fifth as
prolific, are still considered "you must have read books by this person or
else u r ignoramus"? How would their novels have fared in today's
publi****ng
world (I'll grant the time-****fting so that they wouldn't immediately be
tossed as pure plaigarism)?

Dave
-- 
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