c/d: mingus vs. dylan

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we just got an advance copy of the new jonathan lethem novel, "fortress of solitude". it's about two friends growing up in brooklyn in the mid 70s. the black one is named mingus and the white one is named dylan.

is this a fair/useful opposition? also, in the course of the novel one of the characters becomes a punk and the other gets into hip hop. which will or should get into each?

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 19:54 (twenty-two years ago)

new answers in my pantsers

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 19:55 (twenty-two years ago)

Maybe this,

dylan-
folk:rock::punk:hip-hop

mingus-
bebop:avant-garde::hip-hop:punk

― dleone (dleone), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:00 (twenty-two years ago)

mingus's career arc is a bit more, uh, graceful.

this really doesn't make me want to read the novel any more.

― thom west (thom w), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)

There was an excerpt of this in the New Yorker a couple of weeks ago. It was pretty good, I thought.

― o. nate (onate), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:03 (twenty-two years ago)

damn dominique! i have to get you to explain richard powers' "time of our singing" to me next!

― vahid (vahid), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:04 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked the story in the "new Yorker" that was excerpted from this novel.

the names were chosen to represent two species of 1960s cool: dylan's white hipster mother and mingus's black hipster father (who used to sing in a major soul group).

the story had little bits that threw the race-determinism into relief. i liked it. am looking forward to the novel.

― amateurist (amateurist), Tuesday, 19 August 2003 20:31 (twenty-two years ago)

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