February 17, 2005
Commentary:
Peaking too soon?
By Jack GrantArthur Miller died last week. As has been pointed out, Miller's relevance rests upon works completed over 40 years ago, although he continued writing over a long career since that time. However, it is reasonable to say that he peaked young, before he was even 40, with the plays Death of a Salesman and The Crucible, both of which were once required reading for high school students in the United States, although I fear that soon both may fall off the lists of literature with which an educated person should be familiar.
Neal Armstrong was the first human to walk on another world. He did it before his 40th birthday. Since then, Armstrong has become almost a recluse, rarely making any public appearances.
Then again, what do you do with the rest of your life once you are the first man to walk on the moon?
Then there are the almost innumerable masses who feel that high school represents the best years of their lives...
What comes after?
Posted by Jack Grant at 07:45 on 17 February 2005Fame used to be accorded for accomplishment, now it's all celebrity.
But, writers, esp. poets, the greats, tend to peak between 35 and 50. Same is true of Miller. In truth- only Death was a great play- with 5 or 6 other pretty good plays. DAN
You are correct that it is now all celebrity rather than accomplishment, but this isn't such a recent (as in the last decade)trend. There were people who were famous for being famous, like the
Gabor sisters... ugh...
Physicists tend to peak in their late 20s to 30s as well. I think it has to do with flexibility of the mind, and not having life wear you down yet.
Just some thoughts.
-Jack
A tangent idea is that much of what is accomplished is not as great as it seems. Armstrong, for example- while doing things others had not done- merely lucked out to be the astro 1st on the moon, as well being picked as an astro over 100s of other qualified flyers.
In the arts, as example, a Miller has 1 great work and, in a sense, coasted on that. TS Eliot literally has 5-6 great poems. His criticism is horrid, his plays really bad, yet he was long considered the best English lang writer in the 20th C. Harper Lee- 1 book! And many have argued her cousin Truman Capote helped her with it. Jackson Pollock's drip paintings? Sheesh. Too many people want to 'be' artists- live the presumed life- than make art. Same thing online.
Most bloggers are bad writers- they use sportswriterese, link to someone who phrases a POV slightly better, then let troglodytes tear each other apart. Of course, they are even more execrable thinkers- excepting folk like you, who actually engage outside politics and celebrity. Is there even a diff between politics and celebrity any longer? Yet, for this they think they're changing the world for the better.
Newt Minnow's 'vast wasteland' applies even more to the Internet and blogosphere than it ever did to tv. DAN
