Tuesday, March 15, 2005
An American Tragedy
No, not a tragedy in the made-for-TV movie little-girl-falling-down-a-well way, but a tragedy of the timeless-Greek variety. I admittedly don't know a whole lot about the genre, although Antigone is probably my first or second favorite play.
Anyway, I was watching a biography of Lincoln, and I was thinking that the period from Appomattox to his assassination seems ripe for a tragic re-telling. There's just that element of inevitability in Lincoln's assassination that is lacking from those of some of our more minor presidents that fits nicely with my idea of what tragedy is.
Kennedy's assassination was the act of a lone nutjob with an ax to grind, but Lincoln's assassinator was a true rebel, a man of principle, even if he was misguided and wrong. Booth would stand at nothing to keep blacks from becoming citizens, and he succeeded where the Confederate Army had failed -- he defeated Lincoln. That it was a hollow victory makes it all the nicer for the third act of a tragedy. And that quote -- the South will rise again. That's good stuff.
Too bad I'm too illiterate too write this well -- if anybody out there steals this idea, that's fine. And by fine I mean that I will find you and lawyer you to death.
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Anyway, I was watching a biography of Lincoln, and I was thinking that the period from Appomattox to his assassination seems ripe for a tragic re-telling. There's just that element of inevitability in Lincoln's assassination that is lacking from those of some of our more minor presidents that fits nicely with my idea of what tragedy is.
Kennedy's assassination was the act of a lone nutjob with an ax to grind, but Lincoln's assassinator was a true rebel, a man of principle, even if he was misguided and wrong. Booth would stand at nothing to keep blacks from becoming citizens, and he succeeded where the Confederate Army had failed -- he defeated Lincoln. That it was a hollow victory makes it all the nicer for the third act of a tragedy. And that quote -- the South will rise again. That's good stuff.
Too bad I'm too illiterate too write this well -- if anybody out there steals this idea, that's fine. And by fine I mean that I will find you and lawyer you to death.
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