Clay
I just arrived here intending to post the same link.
I wanted to say that this explains much of the reason Americans think less of him than this New Zealander who also knew Wales.
I think of Dylan Thomas as the poet of the small town, the dowdy place and the troubled, trapped artist who finds large things in small things.
The celebrity plays no part in my personal reading of Thomas. There was a peculiarly inelegant cosiness in Wales. A bit like parts of Ireland.
I saw the dramatised version of Brendan Behan's memoir, "Borstal Boy", at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Niall Tobin played the leading role. Behan like Thomas became a victim of celebrity.
"Notoriety and critical attention came to Behan in the mid-1950s and contributed to his downfall and death. "Critics are like eunuchs in a harem: they know how it's done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." His irresolute discipline collapsed into prolonged drinking bouts, and self-destructive incidents. The Hostage was Behan's last major drama - his last books were compilations of anecdotes transcribed from tape recordings. Like Dylan Thomas, he was lionized to death in the United States. A lifelong battle with alcoholism ended Behan's career in a Dublin hospital on March 20, in 1964, at the age of 41. - Behan's works have been translated into several languages, among them Stücke fürs Theater (1962) by Heinrich Böll. "
I first read and heard Thomas in my cliff-house by an estuary in New Zealand and I felt very close to him.
I have not been tyrranised by a string of Dylan fantasies although I love many of Bob Dylan's lyrics.
Dylan Thomas is for me a small town boy.
Janet
[This message has been edited by Janet Kenny (edited July 02, 2004).]
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