I think it depends on the weight of what they did in the final years.
A good example is William Wordsworth. His legacy lies in the Lyrical Ballads, which was first published in 1798 and was a groundbreaking divergence from the poetry written in the day. He became the Poet Laureate in 1843. And by then--much to the dismay of many of his fans--he had become a bloody Tory and was even distributing pamphlets in support of them. Also by then his poetry had become dangerously close to mediocre. But such is fitting for a Poet Laureate, where all you need to do is write nationalist works singing the praises of king & country.
William Wordsworth is, essentially, the Lyrical Ballads. What happened over the next 40 years after he created it isn't his legacy.
As far as Hutchence and Carradine are concerned, we remember their ends because they're newsworthy, shocking, and fairly recent. Twenty years from now and beyond, Hutchence will be all about INXS, and Carradine will be the "Kung-Fu" guy and "Bill."
I think about now many of us are getting over the fact that Cobain blew his brains out. I now think of his music more than his end. Also consider Hendrix and Morrison. I don't think of their ends so much as their musical legacies.
__________________
Knowing that death is certain and that the time of death is uncertain, what's the most important thing?
—Bhikkhuni Pema Chödrön
Humankind cannot bear very much reality.
—From "Burnt Norton," Four Quartets (1936), T. S. Eliot
Last edited by Baraka_Guru; 06-13-2009 at 11:30 AM..
|