On Feb 21, 2009, at 11:26 AM, Jeffrey Hergan wrote: > My daughter picked Steve King.
This raises two questions: First the meta-question: is there some complicated feedback mechanism whereby the arts and society influence each other and hence the course of history? Second the particular: Assuming the hypothesized relationship in question 1 exists, what is there about Steven King that makes him unique among artists and even among authors? Most of this thread has addressed the first question so I think I'll tackle the second. What is the critical consensus on King? It's that he is the best craftsman among popular English fiction writers and that he is closer to Dickens than to many of his contemporaries. In theme, sensibility, subject matter and style, King is a Victorian. And he is somehow very popular despite or perhaps because of the fact that he is an anti- innovator. This opens up the subject of the role of the anti-innovator in society at large. Why are there retro movements in literature but also in music, architecture, fashion and all the arts. I think the answer lies in the fact that we simply can't stand exponential change. Sometimes we need a cultural figure to put on the breaks. King offers well crafted Victorian ghost stories in contemporary settings and, while I am not a big fan, I understand why so many people are. Society simply needs a comfort zone. I suspect Kings biggest fans are people in high stress, cutting edge situations. Neil Stephenson has done has done some more explicitly Victorian revival work especially in "The Diamond Age". It might be interesting to compare him with King. -- Seven Deadly Sins? I thought it was a to-do list! _______________________________________________ OSX-Nutters mailing list | [email protected] http://lists.tit-wank.com/mailman/listinfo/osx-nutters List hosted at http://cat5.org/
