Death of a Playwright Revisited--Updated!When I posted my piece on
Arthur Miller over at Lifelike, I felt I was going out a bit on a limb. Turns out some other people have the same opinion of his work:
Terry Teachout in
Opinion Journal:
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for the fanfares to die away, and no less interesting to see whether any of Miller's plays outlive him. Most are already deservedly forgotten, but I expect that "Death of a Salesman" will continue to hold the stage, though not because it is beautiful or intelligent or provocative. It is, rather, sentimental, and sentimentality always goes over big in the commercial theater, so long as it's disguised as realism. More important, "Death of a Salesman" has a coarsely compulsive power that somehow manages to mask its aesthetic deficiencies, or at least render them momentarily palatable. That's the mystery of theater: It's all about what works, and like it or not, "Death of a Salesman" works. But it's no "Lear," just as Arthur Miller was no Shakespeare, and anyone who thinks otherwise is as lead-eared as he was.Here's a
satirical look at Miller's passing:
Although most of the country is now looking back at the life of one of our most famous and influential literary figures some salesman are looking forward to the opportunities that a dead Arthur Miller will create for them. Namely, textbook salesmen.Update: For a rather profane, but undeniably heartfelt tribute to Miller, champion of the weak and oppressed, by a lefty blogger
click here.
