DOR.I LE SINe
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values in o ne se nse are und ercl ass va lu es. Everyt hin g is quick cuts and no
conseque nces. It 's sort of a knife in the night. It doesn't matter whom
yo u hurt. It relates intimately to that screen. I think it's that close. I think
it's not just the television set going flick, flick, flick. It has to do w ith
values in the street, the va lu es in o ur li ves, the va lu es in our prose. What
they teach instead of history is political correctness so there's no conti –
nuity; it's not even continuity of narrative. There's no historical
continuity. There's only sort of snippets of text in history books and they
say, "This cu lture in ancient Egypt, we owe a great deal to it. Well , what
do we owe to it? We owe certain forms of modern decoration and the
wooden pil low."
William Phillips:
I want to applaud R.enata.
Cynthia Green Colin:
Can I make a cou nterpo int' I remember my
education, which was supposed ly a weak education, and I got to study
China, five times, I was on the silkworm committee. It was a lot better
than studying the structure of the song. That's not my major point. My
major point is that it is my understanding-and again this is not read–
ing-that dance performances are ten times more numerous than they
were in the thirties and forties , that there are thousands of symphony
orchestras across this country whi ch were not there before, so I don't
think one needs to be so deeply depressed. I think also people are read–
ing things that may not be the standard literary narrative. I wonder if Fred
cou ld tel I me how many copies were so ld of
Thc Makill,\!
4
thc
A
tOIll;(
BOlllb,
for examp le, which requires some sustained effort by readers.
Fred Ciporen:
I don't know the number of that but I support you
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what you're saying. Also there are more magazines publi shed, there is
more information out, there arc more people reading...
Fred Siegel:
We have a fantastica ll y wealthy economy. The growth in
spending on theatres and the number of dance compan ies is a pittance in
this multi-trillion dollar economy. The test of this is not how many
books are bought. The test is what people draw from the books. Almost
all of my students are double 7()(} on the SAT. They cannot construct a
coherent argument. If I ask them where Korea is, they have no idea. A
lot of things are going on at once. Yes, a lot of books are being so ld. And
yes, there are a lot of dance performances, but the average scores for the
intelligent student at the leading schoo ls, the quality of work they 're
doing, or how l1lu ch they bring to the table is declining and declining
dramaticall y.
