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Why most contemporary US and British literature sucks.

Xeem said:
The "classics" grow more and more inaccessible to the general public every year, but it doesn't matter in the end because new classics have always and will always continue to take the place of the old ones.
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stcanard said:
This is very true, and the reason behind it very misunderstood. It has nothing to do with appreciation, intelligence, or education, much as the elitists want to think otherwise.

English is a very fluid language and changes incredibly rapidly. This makes English literature more difficult to understand as time passes -- on the extreme you can see something like Chaucer's _Cantebury Tales_, which although it is possible to gain some understanding really requires translation for a 21st Century English speaker to understand.
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I should have elaborated a little more when I posted, but your post explained exactly what I meant. The growing inaccessibility of "classic" works of literature doesn't reflect a fault in either the literature or the reader; it merely reflects the changes that occur as time passes.
 
Xeem said:
I should have elaborated a little more when I posted, but your post explained exactly what I meant. The growing inaccessibility of "classic" works of literature doesn't reflect a fault in either the literature or the reader; it merely reflects the changes that occur as time passes.
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It reflects of the fault of our culture actually.

It used to be that Greek and Latin were standard subjects... now it's Paris Hellton and well other types of trivia that have taken over.

I think it's important to know everything include junk and important facts. Ars longa vita brevis.
 
princealfie said:
It reflects of the fault of our culture actually.

It used to be that Greek and Latin were standard subjects... now it's Paris Hellton and well other types of trivia that have taken over.

I think it's important to know everything include junk and important facts. Ars longa vita brevis.
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Ars longa, vita brevis, occasio praeceps, experimentum periculosum, iudicium difficile.
(The pretentious who quote Latin on public forums will have scorn heaped aplenty.)
 
Blue Velvet said:
Being sniffy about others' reading preferences is posturing just for the sake of it. I pity the children forced to read Joyce when they'd rather be reading Harry Potter.
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This post needs to be applauded, even if it is five pages into the thread.

One of your finest posts Ms. Velvet.
 
princealfie said:
It reflects of the fault of our culture actually.

It used to be that Greek and Latin were standard subjects... now it's Paris Hellton and well other types of trivia that have taken over.

I think it's important to know everything include junk and important facts. Ars longa vita brevis.
Click to expand...

I've been doing some family history research (I dread to think of the number of ancient mold spores I've inhaled!) and one thing that strikes me when reading old newspapers is the pretentiousness. Too many latin, greek or Shakespearean quotes meant not to illuminate the subject at hand but elevate the writer in the reader's eye. Couple that with the advertisements for tent revivals, snide "society" columns and snake oil remedies and it's clear to me that things haven't changed much in the last century.

What's more important, studying a dead language or a living one that allows a person to communicate with live bodies? Latin and Greek are important but to claim they've been supplanted by social ephemera is silly.
 
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