... Arrested Development: The incredible shrinking legacy of a 1960s culture hero.
I saw that 1966 episode of Firing Line, and the fact is Goodman won the debate, as Buckley tacitly conceded at the end, when he remarked that they had run out of time and that he had to "debrief my son, who was in the audience." I recently read -- and wrote about -- Compulsory Mis-Education, and I did not think it nearly so poorly written as this piece would suggest.
This is pretty much a hatchet job as a review, in my humble opinion. Having read a great deal of Goodman—and I note no-one here has even mentioned his voluminous output of poetry, some of it quite delicious poetry—I agree mostly with Fisher's comments in the comments stream.
ReplyDeleteHayden Carruth wrote an important long essay about Goodman, in which he considers both the philosophy and the poetry. I recommend it as a far more objective view of Goodman than we got here.
Reading your review of Raditch, I thought your comparison of Nock and Goodman, and their respective positions, was very good. Very illuminating.
ReplyDeleteThank you for pointing this out.