A cultural dinosaur, our Fielding is.

And those who appreciate his warmth.

At least to all appearances so far, Fielding's satirical life of Jones is intended to celebrate goodness of heart, as he calls it, partly through contrast with those who lack it.

Compare the use Voltaire makes of the goodness of heart of Candide.

Voltaire is not Fielding's opposite, de Sade is.

Reading Tom Jones.

P.S.

We have gone in a single lifetime from cruel and tragic surplus repression to grotesque celebration not simply of sex but of the most animal promiscuity, obscenity, and bizarre perversion.

All that on one side of the culture wars.

With Ted Cruz on the other.

Why do Americans despise politics and the politically committed, the culture wars and culture warriors?

I can't imagine.

I am not saying pornography should be suppressed.

Far from it.

I am saying pornography has its own purpose and value that actual art, literature, drama, and other products of high culture, having their own purposes, do not share.

And vice versa, of course.

Nor am I saying sexual deviance should be punished, though deviance it is.

And I understand the exigencies of coalition politics.

But, really?

Back in the day, Sartre's interview in Playboy only increased my contempt for Sartre.

But not for Playboy.

On this matter, too, Voltaire is not Fielding's opposite, de Sade is.