Reconsidering Heston
April 14th, 2008 by Bill ColleyAn academic examines the career of the great actor and perhaps silences some of the folks tearing Heston down in death. Perhaps because these little people, these wall flowers, these venal beings just need to attack that they may deflect from personal appearances…
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/04/13/larger-than-life-charlton-heston/
April 14th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Let’s see how long it takes for this post to go south: Ready…set…GO!
April 14th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Yeah, it always surprises me. Now that pizza is politicized you begin to wonder. I like how Dr. Fish ends his column, by suggesting you can evaluate Heston’s body of work without politics.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:24 pm
Very good…and it would be a pleasant change not having everything, every topic of discussion or conversation “politicized”. I’d just have to wonder how…or even why…Heston’s body of work merits evaluation without politics (as of course anyone’s ought to be…) when, irrespective of whether or not this generation (or older) believes there are any ‘worthwhile greats’ among artistes, actors, artists et al, so-called critics can’t do so about their work without politicizing…which, as you know as well as any, they certainly do. I don’t claim to be innocent of doing it, myself, from time to time but there are more with whom it’s just pervasive and invasive. Your own posts, Bill, are much more enjoyable…if rare…when you also refrain.
April 14th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
“The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar!” Julius Caesar–William Shakespeare
April 15th, 2008 at 9:14 am
No writer makes me laugh out loud quite like Alexander Pope. From his “Essay On Criticism”
“‘Tis hard to say, if greater Want of Skill
Appear in Writing or in Judging ill,
But, of the two, less dang’rous is th’ Offence,
To tire our Patience, than mis-lead our Sense:
Some few in that, but Numbers err in this,
Ten Censure wrong for one who Writes amiss;
A Fool might once himself alone expose,
Now One in Verse makes many more in Prose.
‘Tis with our Judgments as our Watches, none
Go just alike, yet each believes his own.
In Poets as true Genius is but rare,
True Taste as seldom is the Critick’s Share;
Both must alike from Heav’n derive their Light,
These born to Judge, as well as those to Write.
Let such teach others who themselves excell,
And censure freely who have written well.
Authors are partial to their Wit, ’tis true,
But are not Criticks to their Judgment too?
Yet if we look more closely, we shall find
Most have the Seeds of Judgment in their Mind;
Nature affords at least a glimm’ring Light;
The Lines, tho’ touch’d but faintly, are drawn right.
But as the slightest Sketch, if justly trac’d,
Is by ill Colouring but the more disgrac’d,
So by false Learning is good Sense defac’d.
Some are bewilder’d in the Maze of Schools,
And some made Coxcombs Nature meant but Fools.
In search of Wit these lose their common Sense,
And then turn Criticks in their own Defence.
Each burns alike, who can, or cannot write,
Or with a Rival’s or an Eunuch’s spite.
All Fools have still an Itching to deride,
And fain wou’d be upon the Laughing Side;
If Maevius Scribble in Apollo’s spight,
There are, who judge still worse than he can write
Some have at first for Wits, then Poets past,
Turn’d Criticks next, and prov’d plain Fools at last;
Some neither can for Wits nor Criticks pass,
As heavy Mules are neither Horse or Ass.
Those half-learn’d Witlings, num’rous in our Isle,
As half-form’d Insects on the Banks of Nile:
Unfinish’d Things, one knows now what to call,
Their Generation’s so equivocal:
To tell ‘em, wou’d a hundred Tongues require,
Or one vain Wit’s, that might a hundred tire.
But you who seek to give and merit Fame,
And justly bear a Critick’s noble Name,
Be sure your self and your own Reach to know.
How far your Genius, Taste, and Learning go;
Launch not beyond your Depth, but be discreet,
And mark that Point where Sense and Dulness meet.”
April 15th, 2008 at 5:44 pm
Rick is the man!