I saw something on TV last night about The Dark Knight in which the announcer referred to a certain Mrs. Daniel Moder as “the great Julia Roberts.” Being me, I naturally started to rant. I’m reasonably fond of the ersatz Erin Brokovich, but I wouldn’t give her “the great” status yet. Give her another decade at least, and improve her acting quality quite a bit?
Which brings us to the thread question: what contemporary person merits being called “the great”? You needn’t restrict yourself to actors: writers, statesmen, doctors, scientists, or anyone else is eligible. But whoever you name should be famous, should either still be alive or have died since 2000.
Be prepared to defend your selection.
Three persons come to mind immediately: Octavia Butler, Nelson Mandela, and Michael Caine.
It depends. For dopers exclusively? I think, considering your support of your’ve wife’s problems last month, you should be “the great”. Skald, consider me a fan of yours.
If Douglas Adams isn’t entitled to the title “The Great,” may I spend eternity without a towel, with my ear stuck to a Babel fish that recites Vogon poetry.
I didn’t know much about Octavia Butler (except that I liked her writing) till I googled her just then, and … yeah. I can’t bring to mind anyone who’s overcome so many obstacles and yet managed to avoid being defined by them - people like, say Frank McCourt and June Bhatia (“Helen Forrester”) tend to end up just writing about growing up in poverty. Which is fine. But Butler really does have an impressive body of work and clearly had to overcome a number of severe obstacles to get there.
On the subject of overcoming obstacles - it was here on the boards that I first learnt about Temple Grandin
I have heard some speculation about designating John Paul II as “John Paul the Great”. Not sure if I agree or not, but it is at least not totally ridiculous.
