[lit-ideas] Re: Murder by Membership
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 4 Jun 2008 00:36:34 -0700
I can't help but wonder what is meant here by "the lit side of things." Not
that any of this is going on, but suppose one were to write a poem and post
it, would that qualify? Yes, a poem is literature, but it won't necessarily
spark a discussion. What can one say other than I liked it or I didn't?
Well, if one is seriously into poetry, one might see antecedents, but that
might not spark a discussion either.
Again, not that anyone is doing it, but suppose one were to follow the
ancient Phil-Lit dictum and write a mini-essay on some subject, for example,
the depletion of middle-eastern oil. Would that qualify as literature? It
might, but if a discussion resulted, it would probably be on the subject
matter and not on the literary merits of the mini-essay.
So what is meant by literature? I introduced a few matters in regard to the
Science Fiction / Fantasy genre(s); which didn't elicit a response but
perhaps SF/Fantasy isn't considered literature here on Lit-Ideas -- even
though you can probably find it taught in literature classes some place in
the U.S. and/or Canada.
So what is meant by literature? Some of us have been obtaining and watching
old (classic) movies from Netflix, and these might also be taught in lit
classes some place, but movies aren't really literature, or are they? We
would say that Elizabethan drama was literature; so why not serious movies?
So what is meant by literature? What if I were to say I read "Young Goodman
Brown" or "the Minister's black Veil" or "the Scarlet Letter" and I think X
and Y and Z about them? Surely Hawthorne is a literature figure and his
short stories and novels are literature, but would they spark a discussion?
Probably not. I base that on having read The Scarlet Letter in the recent
past and mentioned a thing or two about it to little response; so what is
meant by literature?
Not explaining, just complaining.
Lawrence Helm
San Jacinto
-----Original Message-----
From: Paul Stone
Sent: Tuesday, June 03, 2008 2:45 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Murder by Membership
Atlas: ...So Paul, where have you been hiding? I know how time
> consuming a kid can be, but that's no excuse.
Let's see... kid, work, subsequent nervous breakdown... yeah, that
about sums up the last 13 months. To be truthful, there just isn't
anything I'm interested in talking about in this forum. I keep reading
it as always, but there's just nothing that tweaks me hard enough to
bother writing. Sorry, my priorities are just in other places. This
list is a hobby. It used to be a bigger part of my life, until more
important things came along. As the lit side of things has basically
disappeared, I've lost the ability to get 'up' for it. It's still a
nice bar to be a fly on the wall, but I'm afraid I don't have anything
to add.
not complaining, just explaining
p
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