Posted on 02/19/2005 7:48:42 PM PST by Former Military Chick
I see that Arthur Miller has entered immortality. His Death of a Salesman is a masterpiece of the first magnitude. An essay he wrote in 1974 about Richard Nixon entitled "One of Us" argued that Nixon had ruined himself by refusing to admit that he had human faults and then, when those faults were revealed, Nixon was ruined by the comparison against the template he had created. Nixon, Miller argued, was really just "one of us" with all our flaws.
It was a brilliant piece and I feel the same way about Arthur Miller. He wrote a great play about selling, and I think of it every day I am traveling and selling myself on a smile and a shoeshine.
But Arthur Miller,the demigod of artistic integrity, prided himself on defending the system of Stalin and the Gulags and the worst mass murders of all time against the system of Jefferson and Washington and Eisenhower. He considered himself above mass culture and celebrity and yet married Marilyn Monroe. He berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.
Arthur Miller, too, was one of us.
Wow. In just over a paragraph, Ben's NAILED it. 'Nuff said.
Pi$$ on anyone who defends Stalin and his friends. Hope you and Stalin are having a nice discussion where you are Miller.
OUCH!!!
That about tells you what sort of non-person Arthur Miller was
How very sad. :(
Compassionate Liberalism.
Damn!
Great article. I find it sad that Miller put his child in an institution and never visited. Wonder about the mother?
Pretty much nails it in the same terse form that made Death of A Salesman great. I read the play for about the 4th time just a few weeks ago - and it was very fine - it must have hit the theatrical world like an atom bomb back in 1947 or 48. I also recall reading an interesting story in the NYT Magazine about 10 years ago on some of Miller's experiences that were the germ for Death of A Salesman. Apparently Miller's father ran a shop in NYC and Arthur worked there as a teen. A particular sales rep called on his father's store and one day Arthur helped the guy to the train with his sample cases. A short time later it became known that this particular sales rep committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Whence came Willy Loman.
I suppose it's like Sean Penn and numerous others - capable of great artistry - but really flawed as human beings. You have to admire them with a real reservation.
Political correctness and social grace means that one mustn't speak ill of the recently departed, and certainly mustn't publish anything negative, especially, of course, when the deceased is a liberal.
Stein is dead on the money here. It may be crass to say this of an obituary, but this one was a breath of fresh air.
I had a conversation about this point with my wife earlier in the week. It really shows a contrast between the type of person that Miller was compared to the type of person Geroge Will is.
I had never heard that. How incredibly sad and hypocritical.
Isn't that what most liberals do best? Being hypocrites
As we age we learn to overcome obstacles, how to succeed, and how to roll with the punches at times that failure beats at our door. Miller's salesman just doesn't get it about taking responsibility for one's own life, being a man without being a whiny victim, setting a high moral example for his family, savoring the benefits that love and fidelity produce, and living according to a higher moral code that has little to do with material success.
This play, like alot of his other work, is a superb reflection of the malaise of the country at the time it was written. It's of Miller's time and not necessarily time-less. It's a downer and Miller's attitude in alot of interviews seemed pessimistic. The Crucible was a manipulation of the details of the Salem Witch Trials as well as the McCarthy hearings (according to Ann Coulter's reporting). After the Fall seemed like a betrayal of his marital intimacy with Monroe.
Miller didn't seem like a positive person. If that negativism is "like the rest of us", I treasure not being one of the crowd.
<< << [Miller] berated capitalism for its hard-heartedness yet he had a child with Down syndrome whom he consigned to an institution and never once visited.
How very sad. :( >>
Sad?
Get out of here.
Miller was evil.
[His colossal hypocrisy but a symptom of his associated mental disorder -- and underlying Liberal Psychosis]
you keep a "nailed it" pinglist, do you not?
I think this qualifies for a moral clarity ping.
Well put Ben!
Poor kid
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.