Patricia Allen notes that life seems to have imitated art, at least in the case of the current Bernie Madoff scandal. She seeks out the commentary of a number of critics and writers, who compare it to Harley Granville-Barker's The Voysey Inheritance, which David Mamet has lately adapted. Other analogies: Anthony Trollope's The Way We Live Now, various works of Charles Dickens, and Arthur Miller's All My Sons. BTW, here's more about Mr. Madoff's scheme, and the history of such schemes.
But, does life imitate art, or do artists take what they see in life and work with it, and do we simply then recognize the analogies, as indeed we should, since artists are working with the truth about human beings?
