Rocelyn phoned last night to call my bluff on "America II." As I told her, I was angling for some criticism, I'm glad I got some, and happy to have the chance to refine my thoughts.
She noted that my point was based on a small historical domain, which needn't define the American tradition. To trace our whole theatrical experience through this one nexus (the American Puritan dislike of theatre) was small minded of me. If inspiration is to be found in unexpected places, then looking at the orthodox origin of American history is hardly such a place. This land is heterogeneous, albeit in a different way than Asia, Europe, or Africa. I think those places have hosted their current cultures for longer, so they are palimpsests: buried and unearthed layers of history. By contrast, America is more a simultaneous fusion of upstart trends. Rather than pore back through time for our performative idioms and modes, then, perhaps we should be thinking synchronically, about the clash of symbols that we live with today.
Beware author:
If this be a free forum, then let not the merit of the ideas expressed be subsumed by your bias against the writer. Otherwise, what is this then but a mere exhibition of monologues--a vulgarization of journal entries that otherwise should be private? What rules such expression but a aggrandizement of ego, a kind of distinct arrogance?
Hear the unknowns cheer BRAVO!?
Well then, let's not disappoint: BRAVO. and nothing else.
You diminish the worth of your own forum in the prejudiced ommissions of rebuttals. Pluralism? What pluralism? You just proved your own 'univocal'sound.
The Astros have been in even worse shape, using three starters with less than two years of major-league experience. Signing Clemens to go with right-hander Roy Oswalt and left-hander Andy Pettitte again gives them a legitimate Big Three once again. If Clemens, after several minor-league tuneups, proves anywhere near as good as he was last season, he will give the team precisely the lift it needs.