Adonis, Anyone?

CAROL IANNONE

IN his most recent book, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, Jacques Barzun compares and contrasts two writers in a way that encapsulates the difference between the 16th and the 20th centuries—“between the dawn of a new culture and its close in disenchantment.” Speaking of François Rabelais’s bawdy narrative, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and James Joyce’s Dlysses, Barzun observes that both show an interest in “exposing the grubbiest corners of society, parodying the professions,” “insisting tonelessly on the body’s needs and acts,” and playing with language. But, Barzun declares, Rabelais “leaves one exhilarated, as one is after seeing a Greek tragedy,” whereas “Dlysses leaves one depressed, as one is after seeing a modern play like Death of a Salesman.”

CI

About the Author

Carol Iannone

Carol Iannone writes on literature and culture.

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CAROL IANNONE

IN his most recent book, From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life, 1500 to the Present, Jacques Barzun compares and contrasts two writers in a way that encapsulates the difference between the 16th and the 20th centuries—“between the dawn of a new culture and its close in disenchantment.” Speaking of François Rabelais’s bawdy narrative, Gargantua and Pantagruel, and James Joyce’s Dlysses, Barzun observes that both show an interest in “exposing the grubbiest corners of society, parodying the professions,” “insisting tonelessly on the body’s needs and acts,” and playing with language. But, Barzun declares, Rabelais “leaves one exhilarated, as one is after seeing a Greek tragedy,” whereas “Dlysses leaves one depressed, as one is after seeing a modern play like Death of a Salesman.”