"...50 years ago, an educated person would have been apologetic if he had never read Ulysses ..."
Really? I was around 50 years ago and I knew some pretty well-educated people. I never heard anybody apologize for not having read Ulysses. I think that's the sort of thing only the intellectually insecure would do. (Have I read it? Yes. Twice, in fact.)
ITA, Frank. An intellectually secure person wouldn't admit to NOT reading something; rather, they'd readily engage in a discussion of what they had read; and, fifty years ago, the bestsellers were:
ReplyDeleteRifles for Watie, Harold Keith
Lolita, Nabokov
The Affluent Society, J. K. Galbraith
Fifty years ago, guess everyone was too bizthy yakking about the second book (which owes an acknowledged debt to Ulysses, in fact.
One of the most memorable lines (and, I paraphrase) involved "the affair" and the narrator trying to recall the cab-driving offender's name: "Ah, yes, Maximov. The name taxies back to me."
For we oldsterish ones, just FYI, the pop-music hits will, no doubt, jog the cells or ring them bells:
"It's All In The Game," Tommy Edwards
"Tequila," Champs
"At the Hop," Danny & The Juniors
"He's Got the Whole World In His Hands," Laurie London
"The Purple People Eater," S. Wooley
"All I Have To Do Is Dream," The Everly Brothers
"Volare," Domenico Modugno
"The Chipmunk Song," David Seville / The Chipmunks
Whoa, just fell through the space-time continuum on my way to the coffee pot . . . Alvin? Alvin? ALVIN?
p.s. Yeah, I read it; in fact, once a decade, each 1 January I force myself to luxuriate in its splendoriginality and bountumental exquisitology
Can't help suspecting the neglected masterpiece here might be Rifles for Watie. My point was simply that if you're intellectually secure and you haven't read something, well, you haven't read it. I haven't Proust.
ReplyDeleteSorry, Frank; sometimes my acronymphomania gets the best of me (since "ITA," spelled properly, equals I Totally Agree). Please, forgive YT, er, Yers Truliously.
ReplyDeleteMy younger sister, Susan, has actually forbidden me from using *any* of 'em (except for ASAP, if she's in a good mood and so, I am trying to clean up my act; but, it's a fact, there's always room for improvement, especially for a KIA such as I . . . <*sigh*> . . .
No problem, Cogito - and I forgot to thank you for the hits list. Does that being back memories. For a few moments I was young again!
ReplyDeleteI meant, of course, bring back ...
ReplyDelete