Harper Lee

[mike carey]

If I disagree with posters here I will challenge their views but if they persist (and don't persuade me) I simply disengage.

[amused1]

Yikes! This certainly twisted and turned. At the end of the day, I'll continue to call books I love great. (Flaws and all.)

[MrMiniver]

Yikes! This certainly twisted and turned. At the end of the day, I'll continue to call books I love great. (Flaws and all.)

 

I don't think I could live in a world with such flimsy -- or non-existent -- intellectual rigor. All books you love are "great?" Why degrade the meaning of the word? Part of what makes us thinking human beings is our ability to discern what is great from what we like. I know Umberto Eco is a "great" writer even though I don't care for much of what he wrote.

[+ WilliamM]

There's also a generation gap here concerning "To Kill A Mockingbird." I was finishing high school and starting college when the book was published. Until my second semester freshman year in college, I was also working twenty hours a week also. I vaguely knew about the book and later the film.

 

At that age, I thought I knew everything, including the subject that Harper Lee wrote about. I have known for many years that I was wrong.

 

I am sure younger people were talking about "To Kill A Mockingbird'" but very few people whom I knew.

[amused1]

I don't think I could live in a world with such flimsy -- or non-existent -- intellectual rigor. All books you love are "great?" Why degrade the meaning of the word? Part of what makes us thinking human beings is our ability to discern what is great from what we like. I know Umberto Eco is a "great" writer even though I don't care for much of what he wrote.

Given that the word "great" has a variety of meanings, including "used as a generalized term of approval" and "remarkable in magnitude, degree or effectiveness" (Mirriam-Webster) , my idea of greatness may be broader in scope than that of others. So yupper, all books I love are great under the terms of those definitions of the word. And, under those definitions, my usage isn't a degradation of the term great.

 

And, finally...

 

Isn't language great?

[+ WilliamM]

I can't make any sense of what you wrote above and the late Justice Scalia or anti-gay policies have to do with this discussion is beyond me.

 

QTR is referring to threads in the politics section of this site. So if you read any comments about politics here in the future you will know where to look for an answer.

[MrMiniver]

QTR is referring to threads in the politics section of this site. So if you read any comments about politics here in the future you will know where to look for an answer.

 

It had no bearing on the issue being discussed which is why it didn't make any sense.

 

And talking about defining "great" down. Generalized term of approval? That's simply pathetic.

[+ WilliamM]

It had no bearing on the issue being discussed which is why it didn't make any sense.

 

MrMiniver, it made sense to me because I am familiar with the posts in the political forum.

 

I did not mean to imply that you are wrong for not being part of politics forum.

[MrMiniver]

MrMiniver, it made sense to me because I am familiar with the posts in the political forum.

 

I did not mean to imply that you are wrong for not being part of politics forum.

 

Well, this isn't the political forum and no discussion of Harper Lee in that context makes any sense. Period. But I realize that some people can't look at any issue -- from the color of the sky to the size of one's dick -- without politics entering into it. I find those people very sad and pathetic.

[+ WilliamM]

Well, this isn't the political forum and no discussion of Harper Lee in that context makes any sense. Period. But I realize that some people can't look at any issue -- from the color of the sky to the size of one's dick -- without politics entering into it. I find those people very sad and pathetic.

 

QTR is one of most respected members on this site. Nobody who was been lucky to know QTR, even slightly, would ever call her sad and pathetic.