Re: sTuff

[as010b@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (andrew david simchik)]

In <1g6aa0INNl3f@smurf.sti.com> stev0@sti.com (Steve Berlin) writes:


>OK, "The Dreaming" doesn't have a theme in the way The Who's "Tommy"
>does, but I never said it did.  Yet it works as a cohesive whole; If
>"The Ninth Wave" is a novella, TD is a collection of short stories that
>all pretty much have the same "Look and Feel".  Take a good anthology
>of short stories (Kurt Vonnegut's "Welcome to the Monkey House" or
>Harlan Ellison's "Alone Against Tomorrow" spring to mind, but feel free
>to use your own for this analogy).  Now, any story stands up well on
>its own; none of the stories have even the slightest thing to do which
>any of the other stories - yet they all build up a cohesive mood that
>is pleasing and challenging and say something profound about our society
>(ie, it sucks).  The Dreaming does this, too.  TSW doesn't.  (I know
>no one said it does, but I'm just contrasting a thematic album (as opposed
>to "concept album" - God, what a 70's idea!) with one that's just a
>collection of very good to rather lame songs).

>- Stev0 the English Lit. Groupie

>"Next, we will compare and contrast Homer's _The Illiad_ with James
>Joyce's _Ulysses_ with the title cut of _The Sensual World_"
>		  - Prof. Stev0 of Miskatonic U.
>--
>____________________________ _B_._`.O.'_.S ___________________________
> Steve Berlin         .   I +  * .o   o.* `.E. +.    "The more I think
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>[Standard         (: May All Your  |^|  Good Dreams   better it gets!" 
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>(c) 1992 by Mike Jittlov (...for all the protection that affords)
>Re-mix (c) 1992 by Steve Berlin - Industrial NC17 Mix

Well, as an English Lit Groupie you should know that theme and mood are
markedly different things.  One could argue that *any* good album should
have a consistent mood.  I think the word you're looking for in connection
with Ellison's collection AAT is "tone", because a mood in and of itself
cannot say "society sucks".  Moods are mute.
	In any case, I have to disagree based on the criteria you gave that
TD is thematic; I think it's unified, though, and if anyone cares I'll
explain how.

Drewcifer
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