[jyl]

Are the great artists, musicians, and performers only great in the context of their time?

If Jimi Hendrix came on the scene today, would he be as electrifying as he was in 1967? Or would he be just another good guitar player? If Beethoven were composing today, if Nureyev were a young dancer today, if Shakespeare were writing today, would they be great - or merely good - or irrelevant?

I suppose some of this depends on whether they would be the same, or different. I don't think there really is much demand for another "Moonlight Sonata", but would Beethoven be an indie rocker instead?

What about athletes? The greats of the past in timed events have all been outclassed by collegiate-level athletes, as far as the stopwatch goes. With modern training, could Paavo Nurmi win 12 gold medals today? In a modern F1 car, how would Jim Clark do? How about the untimed events? Would Ali be as great a champion today, would Rod Laver win Grand Slams, would the Babe find the ball and Johnny Unitas find the receiver with the same dominance as they did in their time?

Scientists? Would Isaac Newton be a revolutionary scientist today, or has the field of physics changed so that his talents would no longer be sufficient? Copernicus, Curie, Descartes, Leibniz?

You get the question. Do we get better and better each decade and century, such that the greats of the past would be inconsequential today? Or do we get differenter and differenter, with the same result for past greatness? Would those titans, captured in black & white, engravings, and marble, be as dust in a 16 megapixel digital image?