Richard, it's hard to comprehend that you've been dead over a decade now. You still have a real presence in my life, and I still hear your laughter. Well, believe me, the culture has gotten so strange, so bizarre, so surreal, that even your laughter may have met its match. I've been trying to think of how to describe American culture today and the closest I've come to is this: hyping mediocrity. In politics, in the arts, everywhere, the lack of intelligence, vision, talent does not disqualify one from media attention and outlandish praise. All I can think of is the ending of AMADEUS and Salieri's gesture to the mediocre masses, which includes himself.
As a kind of self-defense, I'm returning to elitist mad geniuses like Ezra Pound and his ABC of Reading, just to see how it settles after such a long look, especially in today's pop culture. Another way to summarize how the culture has changed: homo consumerus. Pop culture has defeated high culture. Everything dances to the bottom line now.
You can be thankful you've missed all this, actually.
There's also a great irony in the culture. Our best hope are our immigrants, the "foreigners" who arrive with what used to be our values about education and hard work. A vicious minority fights their arrival, of course, unaware that they, not themselves, represent the best in American tradition. The degree of historical ignorance in the culture is staggering, Richard. As a student of history yourself, you would be even more appalled than you were in the past. Ignorance has gotten worse, with exceptions here and there among immigrant families and others.
And the media! There is almost no news any more, as the Cronkites and Brinkleys defined it. It's all entertainment. It's all cutsy, winky, friendly, phony community bullshit.
I get depressed mentioning it. So let me sign off. I imagine I'll be joining you soon enough.
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