Bellamy Said it Better; Past is no Utopia

To the editors:

In response to Ross Douthat's column, "Looking Backwards" (Editorial, Jan. 17): Somehow I doubt that people back in 1900 were walking around thinking (in French), "Gee, the culture today is positively glittering, on par with the Italian Renaissance, and perhaps even comparable to ancient Athens in breadth and splendor."

More likely they were thinking, "What the heck was Monet smoking? Those look nothing like real water lilies!" Around the same time, James Joyce is struggling to get Ulysses in print as publishers declare that in addition to being rife with vulgar language, the novel is big and complicated and filled with absurdist characters. Across the Atlantic, Moby Dick has bombed as critics still have not settled the debate on whether the novel is a work of fiction or actually whaling industry propaganda. Van Gogh has already committed suicide, no doubt driven to such despair because he could only manage to sell one painting. Dickens, meanwhile, is derided as pop-trash in literary circles because his work is that which suits the half-educated moron.

Why is it that "great" art rarely gains acceptance while it is contemporary? Perhaps because the close-minded cultural elite refuse to embrace new forms of art that challenge their superiority and notions of taste. Instead of mourning for times past, maybe Douthat simply has to look a bit beyond his own nose.

P.S. The most popular video games are Japanese, not Western.

Raymond H. Wu '03

January 18, 2001