In a theoretical essay by the Guardian, it’s easy to track the end of literature to our own particular moment. But I’d argue that’s just the tail-end of a postmodern reaction against reacting. But that’s not what this post is about.
Instead I’d like to discuss the future of classic literature based on what exists right now. Most “literary fiction” falls into three camps: the apocalyptic Orwellian future world of the author; the memoiristic travails of growing up in a world that doesn’t understand; and the individual’s plight with relation to other characters, usually told in the third person. These three subgenres are not new, nor is the way they’re told. These tendencies, however, such as more memoirs than ever before being published, say something about the way we value experience in our Internet age. For us, everyone has a voice. It’s all about whose voice is most interesting and unique–whose stories are the best? Look at the rise of the blog. The style, often digressive and intimate, continues to define what and how we read. Trends seem so sloppy because we’re still living them; our century is just entering its adolescent years. It’s hard to gain a perspective on humanity in our time to show how it affects literature in particular. What it takes is literature that is truly original to show us how far we have come since the beginning of the end.
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Books have the power to inspire and make people feel like they can accomplish things.
People read stories of heroism and of brave souls accomplishing huge things against tremendous odds. Books both fictional and non-fictional can help us learn how better to cope with where we are going while highlighting where wehave come from. Books it seems are a powerful medium. That is, unless nothing is truly powerful and life itself or human civilization as we have constructed it is simply a front built to help us avoid the reality that in fact we are all constantly plummeting towards our collective demise. Mortality is the only thing that matters maybe, and anything else is just a way to avoid that fact. This is the major thrust of the 1973 psychology and philosophy tomb The Denial of Death by Ernest Becker, a winner of the Pulitzer for General Non-Fiction in 1974. The book dissects depression, heroism and our collective sense of meaning in life. It is an emotionally heavy read that could leave a reader rethinking their lives in either hyper positive or hyper negative terms. The book has been referenced by Bill Clinton and Woody Allen in the film Annie Hall. It has also recently been a frequent topic of conversation on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast. It’s classic literature in a strange scary way. Can you handle it? As I have explored on this blog before I am something of a dolt. Sure I can spin a sentence in a favorable direction and in conversation I can act like I know a lot of junk about literature but in general I have not actually read much of it. When I was a kid from the age of about 6 to the age of about 12 I am fairly certain that I wrote 8 book reports about The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Now, this is already a blemish on my permanent life record but it gets worse. You see when I was a kid I would wake up an hour early to watch television before school. I loved television and HBO played Fraggle Rock at 6AM. At 6:30AM the network played a clever animated series from Japan that very specifically and accurately told the stories from each chapter of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Classic literature in cartoon form, sign me up! This is all to say that, even though I wrote several book reports on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer I never actually read the thing. Sure I skimmed it for pertinent quotes and really I feel like I know the book intimately but in the end my experience with it is not particularly literary. Did you not get enough love this Valentine’s Day? Did you have a date? Did they stand you up? Did you go out and have a great time? Did you stay home and curl up with a good book?
Valentine’s Day seems to leave a lot of people in the dust. There’s a kind of let down for couples that shared a great day of lovey dovey stuff and a vast number of singles who will have a chip on their shoulder for the rest of the month. Never fear, I have a solution. Books. Yup, books. Read a feel good romance story and give yourself a boost. You can’t go wrong with classic books and famous novels. Here are my suggestions: All this literature take part in the Essay Writer Contest which is organized by Edusson blog. -Emma: a classic, feel-good love story that everyone universally loves. I can’t think of a time it didn’t make me smile. - The Princess Bride: You’ve seen the movie, you’ll love the book. Pick it up, you won’t be sorry. - Jane Eyre: Can you tell I love women romance writers? - The Tale of Genji: this is a strange one and not a popular piece, but I feel it’s worth a read. It was written by a noblewoman in Japan around 1002 CE. Not a traditional story but about love none the less. Read something off the beaten track with this one! |
AuthorFelix Carpenter is a founder of this blog and book reviewer. Felix lives in Los Angeles with his dog Greggy. Despite his hectic schedule, he still finds time to wite book reviews for Edusson writing service. ArchivesCategories |