Arthur Miller

[super simian]

This is just stream of consciousness and please forgive me as I'm sure there is already a thread that I missed on his passing.

However, growing up in Arthur Miller's shadow (I was a drama student at Berkeley in the 70s) it strikes me now how he as a writer represents the passing of an entire era. He inherited a social order where writers could achieve true stature, not just as artists but as public figures. Writers could dictate a level of seriousness at which people were forced to scrutinize their behavior and their culture. Miller not only stood up against the Communist witch hunt with complete integrity, but he turned around and wrote a play that compelled the same degree of integrity in others. Add to this a "theater" driven by engines powerful enough to make sure that play got noticed.

I put theater in quotes because I don't believe that world really exists now. Not only has commercialism completely dismantled the social order that thrust writers like Arthur Miller into prominence, but it is fueled by right wing ideologues who would instantly recognize and suppress any potential "Arthur Millers" of the future.

We should all examine the role that the "entertainment industry" has played here. It is interesting, as a study, to look at where film writers are placed in the hierarchy. If there are any P.G. Wodehouse fans in the crowd, I'm sure you are familiar with his comments on this. Not to denigrate film, because I love it. Arthur Miller's marriage to Marilyn Monroe is one of the most interesting metaphors for the evolution of theater in the 20th century.

So I just think that the death of Arthur Miller should be a wake up call for all of us. What has changed and what is still in place for the future of writing as a profession?