MC: Metaphorically, then, we could say that the mediocre and the better
are in constant conflict: the mediocre tends to win battles (= temporary
celebrity), the better tends to win the war (= perennial glory). But is
that really any different than to say that tastes change?
EY: Made me think of the way Milan Kundera treated celebrity and glory
in his novel _Immortality_. He writes about immortality (in the sense of
artistic or philosophical celebrity and glory) as "things disappearing
into their own images." (Hemingway and Goethe, for example, have a very
amiable discussion in heaven.)
So maybe tastes change by disappearing into the images of what those
tastes were? For example, 1960s rock-n-roll Beatles fame disappears into
the images (those old black and white photos of the Beatles arriving in
America)of that fame, which we then reconstruct as suits our taste.
In other words, maybe one doesn't really love Elvis as the original
Elvis fans did, but only through the prism of modified (time and) taste.
Best, Eric who never appreciated Haydn as the Esterhazys did
------------------------------------------------------------------ To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off, digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
