June 14, 2005

• Broadening the Horizons

  May it never be said that I am not a great connoisseur of fine
  literature. 

  Sometimes you just have to read the classic authors, and Thomas Hardy is perhaps one of the finest novelists
  of our time (http://www.yale.edu/hardysoc/Welcome/welcomet.htm). 

  Best known as the real-life inspiration for the
  Hardy Boys (http://hardyboys.bobfinnan.com/hb3.htm), he has authored such quality novels as Far From the Madding Crowd, Tess of the D'Urbervilles, A Pair of Blue Eyes, and a bunch of poetry.  He is also suspected by confused high school students to have written Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice under the pen name Jane Austen, as well as the ubiquitous Pomp and Circumstance under the nom de plume
  Sir Edward Elgar.  His works never fail to illustrate a remarkable
  breadth and depth of knowledge of universal truths about the human
  condition and stuff, as evidenced perhaps most clearly by his recent
  work, shown above.  The only thing that puzzles me is why
  such a talented and prolific writer has not published in so long. 
  Maybe he's a perfectionist--He didn't want to release anything until it
  matched the high standard of his previous works, kind of  like
  J.D. Salinger's groundbreaking animal novel Cat, Yer in Their Eye.  Salinger always felt like anything else he wrote would be garbage in comparison (Salinger is a he,
  right?), so he didn't bother publishing any other stories, and his first big
  novel remains his last.   A one-hit wonder.  But what a
  wonder it is...a wa-wa-wa-wa-wonder. 

  I certainly don't hold my blog entries to that standard.

  • 11:00 pm
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