Tuesday, February 01, 2011

Chill, dude ...

... Narcissus Regards a Book.

They may sense that Blake's Songs of Innocence and Experience are in some manner more valuable, more worth pondering, more worth preserving than The Simpsons. They may sense as much. But they do not have the terminology to explain why. They never heard the arguments.

Maybe they're both worth pondering and preserving. They do, after all, serve quite different purposes and are, in fact, quite different. The Simpsons, which I've always enjoyed when I've watched the show, have never interfered with my appreciation of Blake.

What's not asked in the review and the interview and the profile is whether a King book is worth writing or worth reading. It seems that no one anymore has the wherewithal to say that reading a King novel is a major waste of time. No chance. If people want to read it, if they get pleasure from it, then it must be good. What other standard is there?

The only King book I've read is one he co-authored with Peter Straub, Black House. I did not find reading it a major waste of time. In fact, I found it had a sharper eye for what life is like in America than a lot of so-called literary fiction.

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