salesmandeath better than Vineland?

[Tim Strzechowski]

Monica sed:

>>a-  Eugene O´Neill, whom I don´t especially like, but respect. ´´ Mourning
>>Becomes Electra´´ and ´´ The Iceman Cometh´´ compensate for ´´Desire Under
>>The Elms´´ and    ´´ A Strange Interlude´´, thematically two very
Pynchonian
>>works which I think Pynchon could have, ideally, addressed more
efficiently
>>in prose form;

I, personally, like _Desire_.  It's not the Great American Drama, but I
enjoy it.  But I know what you mean about "respect."  There's something
about an O'Neill work that certainly makes you realize that you're in the
presence of Greatness . . . but it all kinda leaves a bad "orange juice and
toothpaste" aftertaste.  But maybe that's me.

>>b-Tennessee Williams, surely the most incendiary, intense and
provocatively
>>humane dramatist of the American 20th century. If Dostoyevsky had set his
>>heart on being a dramatist, as was his original intention, only he may
have
>>written as Tennessee did, before Tennessee did. Williams has a severe
>>Ibsenian strength coupled to a nearly surreal lubricty.

No doubt.  _The Glass Menagerie_ is pure poetry, and _A Streetcar Named
Desire_ is just plain fun.

I'll have to think about that Dostoyevsky link . . .


Tim