versus
One year ago today, Lorenzo Music, the voice of Carlton the doorman on Rhoda, died. His eulogy from Valerie Harper:
“Valerie’s heart is breaking, but Rhoda is certain that Carlton the doorman is giving St. Peter at the gate a run for his money.”
Today’s birthday: Logician John Venn.
Appearing for the story theory…
Flannery O’Connor:
“In the long run, a people is known, not by its statements or statistics, but by the stories it tells. Fiction is the most impure and the most modest and the most human of the arts.”
Appearing for the diamond theory…
Mary McCarthy and G. H. Hardy:
From the Hollywood Investigator:
On October 18, 1979, Mary McCarthy said on PBS’s Dick Cavett Show: “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the.'”
Don’t forget “a,” as in “a people is known” —
“Greek mathematics is permanent, more permanent even than Greek literature. Archimedes will be remembered when Aeschylus is forgotten, because languages die and mathematical ideas do not.”
— G. H. Hardy in A Mathematician’s Apology
And a closing rebuttal from the story theory…
Martin Heidegger and Dean Martin:
Words of wisdom from Martin Heidegger, Catholic Nazi:
“The nature of art is poetry. The nature of poetry, in turn, is the founding of truth…. In the work, truth is thrown toward… an historical group of men.”
— Poetry, Language, Thought, page 75, translated by Albert Hofstadter, Harper & Row paperback, 1975
And from Dean Martin, avatar of anti-art :
– Artist: Dean Martin as sung on “Dean Martin’s Greatest Hits”
– Capitol 4XL-9389
– peak Billboard position # 2 in 1953
– from the movie “the Caddy” starring Dean, Jerry Lewis, and Donna Reed
– Words and Music by Harry Warren and Jack Brooks(In Napoli where love is King, when boy meets girl, here’s what they say)
When the moon hits your eye like a big-a pizza pie,
That’s amore!
When the world seems to shine like you’ve had too much wine,
That’s amore!