Norma Desmond

Gandhi is supposed to have said, when asked what he thought of western civilization, it would be a good idea. 

When Joe Gillis says to Norma Desmond, You're Norma Desmond. You used to be in silent pictures. You used to be big, Norma Desmond says to him, I am big. It's the pictures that got small.

It's weird, the stuff that comes to mind after spending almost all day reading about the classical world--Werner Jaeger's Paideia, v. 1--and then going down to the basement to watch tv late at night.