[lbo-talk] Paris Hilton on Letterman

Carrol Cox cbcox at ilstu.edu
Tue Oct 2 09:02:15 PDT 2007


Michael Smith wrote:
>
> I wouldn't have thought that anything could possibly
> make me feel any sympathy for Paris Hilton -- nor would I
> have thought that anything could make me like David Letterman
> less. But Letterman has achieved it -- inviting a mental
> defective onto his show and then sandbagging her. Puts me
> in mind of the epistle to Arbuthnot:
>
> Let Sporus tremble -- What? that thing of silk,
> Sporus, that mere white curd of ass's milk?
> Satire or sense, alas! can Sporus feel?
> Who breaks a butterfly upon a wheel?

A wonderful passage - but I slightly prefer the wonderful destruction of the passive-aggressive style in the Atticus portrait: "Like Cato, give his little Senate laws, / And sit attentive to his own applause." Such people make difficult the relief that comes from the the explosion of the Sporus portrait or the Hogs of Westphaly passage in the Epilogue.

Carrol


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