Blog 5

I have been thinking about the visit to the Lilly and the recent discussions about books that have changed history. My perception though is somewhat different in that many things that have changed the world only apply to a later or future world rather than the one where the book was first released in. Agee is a good example because Let us now Praise famous Men only sold around six hundred copies (guessing from presentation on it) when it was first put out. It is the desire of new gen rations to understand their past which may seem to cloud their desire to form a proper present or future. This can be seen in many pre-modern and modern societies but I'm getting away from the point. While the book was uniquely original and completely honest in its telling, its fame comes from a somewhat superior sense of thought processes added to an old tradition to holding up the over-looked and forgotten (Van Gogh, Poe, Plath, Duffy, etc.). Along with this, Agee also adds to this a history of the times which people will always want as another piece to help them better view the past. It does not matter whether it is a broad or narrow story because either will create discussion and analysis and most likely a special place within the subject matter. And the book did just that as it is considered one of the greatest books of the period, subject matter, and of all time. But by doing this, Agee and the book become a mythical construct and thus can never be looked at from its real point of origin but simply admired from a farther off generation of time. But with book like Agee's, something else has to take place because of it got no attention when it was put out and possibly too much after it was recovered long after, the best thing to do might be to take it just like Agee explains: read it and leave it be. Any thoughts about are fine but be careful and guard against over thinking.