Robert Penn Warren knew well what fascinates readers : " In this century, and moment, of mania, tell me a story . " The trick is that simple and rare, which makes it all the more remarkable that of all the bureaucratic entities in nonliterary America, the independent commission on the Sept . 11 attacks has produced a lean and stunning narrative out of its exhaustive investigation.
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But even his nonliterary work is smart and well-observed, most especially in two small, independent movies in 1996 : " Big Night, " in which he acted and served as co-director with his friend Stanley Tucci ( they went to John Jay High School in Cross River, N . Y ., together ) and the delightful " The Daytrippers, " ( also featuring Tucci ) in which Scott had a cameo and was also an executive producer.
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In his essay " The Adventures of a Social Poet " James Smethurst argues that " one of the most noted features of Popular Front aesthetics is a conscious mixing of genres and media of'high'and'low,'of'popular'and'literary,'of Whitman and Eliot, of folk culture and mass culture, of literary and nonliterary documents . " Hughes'use of vernacular mixed with high-brow cultural elements within " Advertisement & " reflects those ideals.
