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Modern classics of all kinds

Hah. Hi Ell. Posting at the same time. :)
You may have a point about a teenagers parameters, but someone that young is someone that has to be educated to increase their parameters, yes?
 
pontalba said:
Hah. Hi Ell. Posting at the same time. :)
You may have a point about a teenagers parameters, but someone that young is someone that has to be educated to increase their parameters, yes?
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True. But it gives rise to the question of "shifting sands" and the inherent difficulty in trying to pinpoint an absolute definition.

Hi to you too. :D
 
Ell said:
"Modern” is an interesting word. It gets tossed around by cultural commentators, architectural critics, and suspicious traditionalists. Sometimes, it just means “nowadays.” For our purposes here, I’ll define modern as, “Based in a world the reader recognizes as familiar.” So although Moby Dick is certainly a classic, it has a hard time being a modern classic because many of the settings, lifestyles allusions, and even moral codes seem dated to the reader.

A modern classic, then, would have to be a book written after WWI, and probably after WWII. Why? Because those cataclysmic events shifted the way the world sees itself in irreversible ways."​

Then that definition wouldn't apply to say, a teenager. Not many teens see the period between WWI and maybe the Vietnam War as being familiar. The cataclysmic event for him might be 9-11. (Just thinking out loud.)
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Well I sincerely hope that in the selection of classic literature, the choices of teens do not feature.
 
Meadow337 said:
Well I sincerely hope that in the selection of classic literature, the choices of teens do not feature.
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Well, in the absence of agreed definitions, aren't we currently heading toward anyone posting books they thought were really "great," irrespective of what is called recent or classic?
Sort of like "Best Books I have Ever Read in my Life."
Just askin', hopin' to precipitate some sort of consensus.

Your friendly consensus helper
:D
 
Peder said:
Well, in the absence of agreed definitions, aren't we currently heading toward anyone posting books they thought were really "great," irrespective of what is called recent or classic?
Sort of like "Best Books I have Ever Read in my Life."
Just askin', hopin' to precipitate some sort of consensus.

Your friendly consensus helper
:D
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LOL well that would be a list of 'what I like' not a list 'these are considered classics because they meet these universally agreed upon criteria.
 
Meadow337 said:
LOL well that would be a list of 'what I like' not a list 'these are considered classics because they meet these universally agreed upon criteria.
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Exactamundo! So, I'm waiting for the criteria. /tapping foot, tap, tap, tap/ And the starting date. /tick, tick, tick/
Just raggin ya, but do you think the criteria are settled?
 
it is 2 am here and you expect a coherent well thought out response from me? Dream on! LOL

I will defer to wiser heads than mine on this. I have no idea what constitutes a classic, modern or otherwise, especially as I am of the opinion that just 'cos its old, doesn't mean it's good :p
 
Peder said:
Whenever. Just to get us all on the same page for some reason or other.. As if there will be an "all" of us.
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I betcha this forum is like one of those large families that bicker at each other but unite in the face of a threat.
 
Well, the modern era is generally thought of as starting with the 16th century.

So anything after 1500?

1500 Gregorian. I don't want to be ambiguous.




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What about anything from the last...100 to 150 years? as that is my outer 'Modern' classic limit after that it just a classic.
 
Meadow337 said:
it is 2 am here and you expect a coherent well thought out response from me? Dream on! LOL

I will defer to wiser heads than mine on this. I have no idea what constitutes a classic, modern or otherwise, especially as I am of the opinion that just 'cos its old, doesn't mean it's good :p
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Actually, no, I didn't. But I thought the about.com link you posted was a good start.

And, alas, I have to confess. I have read and looked at many a classic book and most have not been very appealing. So, classic doesn't give me an "oh boy" feeling, either old or modern. And I especially tend to avoid so-called modern classics. (because I disbelieve so much of the hype -- your word -- that I hear about them). I much prefer to find and read my own gems, by keeping a detective's ear to the ground and picking up recommendations here and there by subliminal auditory osmosis.
 
Peder said:
Actually, no, I didn't. But I thought the about.com link you posted was a good start.

And, alas, I have to confess. I have read and looked at many a classic book and most have not been very appealing. So, classic doesn't give me an "oh boy" feeling, either old or modern. And I especially tend to avoid so-called modern classics. (because I disbelieve so much of the hype -- your word -- that I hear about them). I much prefer to find and read my own gems, by keeping a detective's ear to the ground and picking up recommendations here and there by subliminal auditory osmosis.
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LOL there is a wonderful invention ..... its called .... wait for it .... GOOGLE! It can turn any idiot into a genius with the click of a button or two :rofl
(especially at 2 am)

I did think that link hit in on the head, but now if only all 'classics' met those criteria.
 
[Overlapping Meadows previous post]

Picking up the thought from the link, of "modern" meaning the times we live in, perhaps we could get the ball rolling with trying to think of how we would characterize our times without the novel seeming "old-fashioned" or talking about "times gone by". Are we now living in the "Times of 9-11"? Or in The "Fall of the Wall"? Or "The Rise of . . . ."? Or the "Era of Surveillance"? Or "Third-World Wars"? Or "The End of . . . "? The"Era of Terrorism"?
Is WW II "done"? The Holocaust?
What characterizes "now," and what is a current/recent novel that is immersed in it? Trying to think of a single idea and a single novel about it might provide some candidates, and shorter more focused lists. Good books there always are, but which ones are "now"?

A single novel I would nominate, capturing a view of "success" for its time not so long ago, would be James Salter's Light Years. I A brilliant piece of writing IMO.

More recently, how about Bleeding Edge by Thomas Pynchon. Maybe he, with his particular outlook, is a spokesman for recent times.

Anyway.
 
Technology is always an issue in a 'now' book or a book that gives you a feeling 'oh gosh isn't that funny' if we are talking about books that are meant to be a reflection of 'life now'.

For example - is a book like Bonfire of the Vanities still as sharply relevant as it was when it came out? It was a product of its time, and raised great questions for that time, but has it stood even a short test of time?

On the other hand you can read a book like Remains of the Day which is also a book set in a particular time and place, and yet somehow transcends that.
 
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