Okay, it's not a comparison I would have thought of. But Dana Wilson, the writer who came up with it, really, really knows and loves his Dickens (despite one mistake when he's talking about the plot of Great Expectations). His enthusiasm is a grand and glorious thing to see. By the time you've read this:
Reading Charles Dickens is a gambol, a romp, a stately measured tread, an indignant stamp, an obsequious crawling, an orchestrated dance, a stealthy hushed tiptoe; reading Dickens is a mad dash to the finish line, followed by a deliberate, measured pace (the re-reading) to enjoy the lushness of the surroundings; Dickens, to the modern reader’s sensibilities may be no walk in the park, but Dickens always moves the reader and the plot forward.
. . . you're actually almost ready for this:
Dickens imprints his work on the reader’s consciousness the way the insistent beat of rap insinuates itself into the hearer’s state of being. I compare Dickens to rap because I believe that one is just as relevant as the other to young people in this modern, ‘sophisticated’ day and age. Both present mighty anthems of the poor and the dispossessed, both deal with the results of life in inner cities and megalopolises and both have lessons for the young and unsophisticated.
When he puts it that way -- maybe he's got a point!
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