"For every wicked witch there is, in our culture, a black magician, an alchemist, a Flying Dutchman, a Doctor Strangelove, a Vincent Price. The scientist, like the magician, possesses secrets. A secret — expertise — is somehow perceived as antidemocratic, and therefore ought to be unnatural. We have come a long way from Prometheus to Faust to Frankenstein. And even Frankenstein's monster is now a joke. Mr. Barnouw reminds us of "The Four Troublesome Heads" (1898), in which a conjuror punishes three of his own severed heads because they sing out of tune; he hits them with a banjo. This book, at once scrupulous and provocative, reminds us of two habits of mind we seem to have misplace — innocent wonder and an appreciation of practical brain power. Peeled grapes are out and LSD is in. (Again, alas.) If we laugh at Frankenstein, we also laugh at Bambi. We are more inclined to shrug than we are to gasp. Isn't everything a trick? Am I putting you on? Of course not; you wouldn't fit. Hit me with a banjo."
Quote Details
Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Unverified quote
0 likes
People from Washington, D.C.Journalists from the United StatesColumnists from the United StatesPeople from New York CityFilm critics
Original Language: English
Available Languages (1)
Sources
"Books of the Times" in The New York Times (6 July 1981)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Leonard_(critic)
Revision History
No revisions have been submitted for this quote.
Categories
John Leonard (critic)
John Leonard (February 25 1939 – November 5 2008) was an American literary, TV, film and cultural critic.
39 quotes on TrueQuotesView all quotes by John Leonard (critic) →
Related Quotes
"Isn't it amazing the way the future succeeds in creating an appropriate past?"
"My fathering had always taken the form of a friendly cloud that floated across the lives of the children, and paused …"
"Everybody remembers his or her first magic show. Mine was in a garage in the dark. I passed out bowls of peeled grape…"
"The magicians of the 19th century, enthralled by the science of optics, photography and electricity, opened the door …"
"Do you suppose Latin American writers, trying to mix literary modernism with revolutionary politics, resent our blue-…"
"Everybody is forever saying that the essay is dead. This is always said in essays."
"Run from the Furies, and they find you, as if fear were a homing device, as if literature itself, on contemplating th…"
"Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make …"
"Crossing color, class, gender, and generational lines, the communities of addiction and recovery are as democratic as…"
"There are too many ironies in the fire!"