re: #389 darthstar

So you were an English major in college, and not just a business major who spent all his time playing video games. I knew it!

I was a political science major, but one who came to appreciate the importance Tragedy sometimes can have.

But really, that appreciation predates college, and goes back to an early 1990’s HBO movie called State of Emergency. It stars Joe Montegna as a doctor who gets forced from his position at a hospital over the death of a patient, a death he likely couldn’t have prevented but which has sparked the threat of a major lawsuit. The hospital decides for liability/settlement reasons to push Montegna’s doctor out, and though he fights valiantly against this he never really has a hope of prevailing. The final hearing scene reminded me of key elements of tragedy when I later read of said descriptions. It was with that later reading (as part of a high school English class) that I truly appreciated what I had seen.

Tragedy, though, doesn’t do well in America. Americans don’t like the idea of a brave and heroic (but somewhat flawed) figure simply facing a situation where all of his good qualities just cannot overcome the odds stacked against him.