Threaded Order Chronological Order
| re: William Goldman, R.I.P. | |
| Posted by: BigM 07:03 pm EST 11/23/18 | |
| In reply to: re: William Goldman, R.I.P. - AlanScott 02:40 am EST 11/20/18 | |
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| Interesting reaction. McCarthy's main problem with Miller was that she thought he neglected specifics - making his characters real, specific people - for pretentious "universality." She compared the famous story about a spectator taking a shot at Iago in Othello - obviously someone who understood and was taken in by the story - with the famous comment on Salesman, "that New England territory never was any good" - from a commenter who clearly didn't get it. And you may have assumed the Lomans were Jewish, but there are no Jewish specifics in the play, no mention of such things as services, Bar Mitzvahs, etc. The sons' names seem designed to evoke WASP America, except for a college friend of mine who identified them as the two children of Minnie Marx who didn't go into show business. | |
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| re: William Goldman, R.I.P. | |
| Posted by: AlanScott 07:25 pm EST 11/25/18 | |
| In reply to: re: William Goldman, R.I.P. - BigM 07:03 pm EST 11/23/18 | |
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| I missed your reply till now. I agree with what you wrote. I meant to reply to Michael but never did. In my earlier post, I wasn't trying to say that the Lomans were Jewish, but merely that they seemed Jewish to me in spite of Miller's trying to remove most every trace of Jewishness from them. Death of a Salesman is a great play, but there is some truth to what McCarthy and others have said. I think the Jewishness can't help but come through in some ways, but, yeah, the lack of specificity is arguably a problem in the play. | |
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| re: William Goldman, R.I.P. | |
| Posted by: BigM 08:55 pm EST 11/28/18 | |
| In reply to: re: William Goldman, R.I.P. - AlanScott 07:25 pm EST 11/25/18 | |
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| Thanks for that, Alan. We can certainly trade opinions on this issue (I'm not sure exactly what I think about it), but after Michael's first reply to me I felt like I was crazy. And I knew that allegation (not about my sanity, but about the Jewishness issue) had been made. | |
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