[lucyrulesok]

maybe i misunderstood but i thought !@#$%!'s post was saying that literature should be able to appeal to people both outside and inside the 'in group'. i.e. that it should be able to appeal on some basic level to lots of different groups of people, and that if it can't then it's rubbish. so not saying that middle class american literature CAN'T do this but that it's a bit crap because it often doesn't.

i agree with you that pain is relative. suffering isn't some kind of competition and i think at the heart of it we suffer over essentially the same things, just on a different scale.

but i do wonder why we always think suffering is the root of good art/literature??????? this is something that has always stumped me. not that i necessarily don't think that, but i certainly don't understand it.