Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/02/17

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Subject: [Leica] In/accessible
From: Donal Philby <donalphilby@earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2000 12:37:29 +0000

Some years ago I read a book on writing popular fiction by blockbuster
novelist Dean Koonz.  In it he defended popular fiction versus the "art"
fiction.  Frederick Forsythe versus say John Barth or Thomas Pynchon.

He mentions one writer in the 1800s who was excoriated by the critics. 
They called him common, simple, uncreative, without literary style.  On
the other hand, there were other writers, part of the intelligencia and
academia, that they praised to heaven for artistry and depth and style,
even though few people read the novels.  

Of course, no one today except a few scholars know the names of the
critically aclaimed authors, but the one that published cheap stories in
the popular press about real issues of personal and social concerns is
still celebrated today.

Charles Dickens.

I think all the art for art critics is fine.  It will eventually drop
into the wastebin of time when there is no one left to have intellectual
appreciation.  But the art which springs from the depth of human
experience, which touches universal pain, joy, hope, dispair, love,
ambition, peace and more will live and move new generations precisely
because it expresses those common truths that cross time and culture.

Certainly Leicas (to stay on topic) have been used to make more of such
photos than any other.  

donal
__________
Donal Philby
San Diego
www.donalphilby.com