Playwright Arthur Miller Dies at 89

iWon News ^ | February 11, 2005 | MICHAEL KUCHWARA

[billorites]

Not many of Marilyn Monroe's dance partners left.

[theDentist]

Are they sure he isn't just bored after re-reading one of his novels?

[annyokie]

Search is your friend.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1341093/posts

[anniegetyourgun]

Used to live down the street from this guy - I was younger then.....but he was always old.

[tallhappy]

Death of a Salesman was the corniest meodramatic twaddle...

[billorites]

“I’ve got to get some seeds. I’ve got to get some seeds, right away. Nothing’s planted. I don’t have a thing in the ground.”

[billorites]

And mark this. Let either of you breathe a word, or the edge of a word, about the other things, and I will come to you in the black of some terrible night and I will bring a pointy reckoning that will shudder you. And you know I can do it; I saw Indians smash my dear parents' heads on the pillow next to mine and I have seen some reddish work done at night, and I can make you wish you had never seen the sun go down!

[Rastus]

The good thing about old commies is that they are OLD commies. First Ossie Davis and now this guy. I won't pretend to feel sad.

[tallhappy]

Bad puritans. Bad bad anti-communists. Bad bad bad hypocritical salesmen or entrepreneurs.

Ain't we smart and sophisticated.

[anniegetyourgun]

I think you captured the essence there.....

[purpleland]

"Bad puritans..." No Fifth Amendment in Colonial America.

Just reflecting on the events which inspired Miller to write "The Crucible" - the play's puritan witchhunt theme alluded to the now obsolete Congressional Committee on UnAmerican Activities' hearings in the '50s. If a man publicly denies what he privately believes, then he has the convictions of a coward.

Today, subversive ideologues have risen from the subrosa to the overt level. They are even elected to Congress on explicit socialistic platforms. Now, if one opposes a socialist one world government take-over of the Republic of America's sovereignty, the neoMarxist will call that one a xenophobe or worse - a conservative.

I have aged as gradually as our American founding precepts, values and ideals have turned upsidedown.

[vikingchick]

Willy to Biff: "Spite will be the word of your undoing!"

[what's up]

Good to see most posters here see Miller for what he was...a liberal who wrote junk.

Lots of admirers calling Miller a "great American" on the other thread. Yuk.

[quietolong]

Elia Kazan, patriot: An American unfairly scorned
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/992023/posts


Do you want to see how many Communist there still are in Hollywood?...Protesting Kazan's Award

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/975677/posts

[Borges]

Miller wrote plays.

[Borges]

Just curious...Which liberal writers do you think were great artists? Since most writers were/are leftists...

[what's up]

Many artists are/were liberals. Thus the plethora of liberals in Hollywood.

This is why I don't believe Miller to be a great American. He may be an artist...however, he used his art to promote anti-capitalist ideas which is the opposite of what America is about. I don't consider many of Hollywood actors great Americans either. Miller in particular used his art politically to promote anti-McCarthyism and bash the Church...2 birds with one stone. Reprehensible.

I have no trouble with reading these liberal authors' work to see how they use art to promote their philosophies. However, why are Milton, Dante, Augustine, Plato, etc. etc. etc. not presented in High Schools? The post WWI period literary trend is way way way over-emphasized IMO and has contributed greatly to the cynicism toward the West.

[Borges]

The Crucible doesn't bash the church it bashes corruption in the Church. The hero, John Proctor, is a decent Christian man. Plato, Augstine and Dante aren't taught much in American schools because they didn't write in English. I wish more European literature was taught but there's only so much time unfortunately. They are certainly taught in colleges to Philosophy, Theology and Italian majors.

As for Milton I agree with you. He should be taught more. I guess Paradise Lost is too long and would not leave time for much else in a given high school sememster. That and it's extremely difficult...Milton didn't have the common touch that Shakespeare had. And it would entail all sort of theological discussion that most high school teachers are unqualified for. But you don't really think Milton wasn't promoting his own very stringent world view do you? He wrote blatant propaganda for the brutal Cromwell theocracy...he advocated exterminating Catholics. Still that doesn't detract from his art. Paradise Lost, the English Epic should be read by all who speak the language.

P.S. Jack London and Theodore Dreiser pre-date WW1. As do G. Bernard Shaw, Kate Chopin and many others of whom I'm sure you also disapprove. Regards.

[what's up]

Augstine and Dante aren't taught much in American schools because they didn't write in English.

As they were great literary figures from whom countless English authors drew, I would think they would be worth some time in High school literature courses.

Chaucer, Chesterton, John Donne, Spenser, Pope, Johnson, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc...not taught. 20th century scepticism has been the trend for some time. Disgustingly unbalanced.