One mean coroner
Well, I guess Terry Teachout won't get his name penciled in on the Questionnaire for Almost Dead Writers next to "And who would you like to pick through your bones once you're actually dead?" Not after he does that job today on Arthur Miller. He works on Miller's bones as though he is angry he missed an opportunity to horsewhip the writer one last time before he died.
Teachout's final conclusion: that "Death of a Salesman" is no "King Lear" and that Miller was no Shakespeare "and anyone who thinks otherwise is as lead-eared" as Miller was.
Admittedly, that is a response to overwrought obituaries where Miller is placed much higher on the altar of playwriting than Teachout would allow including one quoted instance of "Salesman" being called an "American 'King Lear'." Still, given the roughness with which Teachout handles Miller throughout the article, that conclusion is a little unnecessary, a bit like concluding that General Wesley Clark is no Dwight Eisenhower and that the aerial bombardment of Serbia was no D-Day after ten paragraphs explaining why Clark at best had questionable skills as a military commander.
Teachout's final conclusion: that "Death of a Salesman" is no "King Lear" and that Miller was no Shakespeare "and anyone who thinks otherwise is as lead-eared" as Miller was.
Admittedly, that is a response to overwrought obituaries where Miller is placed much higher on the altar of playwriting than Teachout would allow including one quoted instance of "Salesman" being called an "American 'King Lear'." Still, given the roughness with which Teachout handles Miller throughout the article, that conclusion is a little unnecessary, a bit like concluding that General Wesley Clark is no Dwight Eisenhower and that the aerial bombardment of Serbia was no D-Day after ten paragraphs explaining why Clark at best had questionable skills as a military commander.
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