19 November 2009

BTT for 11/19

I am really having a bit of trouble wrapping my mind around the fact that it is a week until Thanksgiving. I worry about my perception of time and whether i'm wasting all of mine.

so, an interesting question for BTT today!



Yes. There are definitely authors that write today that i feel people will be reading in 100 years. I think that, just as people today read Austen and the Bronte's for a view of Georgian and Victorian England, people a couple hundred years from now will read books from our times to understand our view of life. While i don't know if Dan Brown, Stephenie Meyers, Nicholas Sparks, or Patricia Cornwell will still be read, I bet Stephen King, Haruki Murakami, Toni Morrison and JK Rowling will still be picked up.

I also think we have a bit of a weird perspective. Will reading for pure entertainment last? after all, the novel really has only been around a few hundred years anyway. Music and Drama both have much longer histories and have really proven themselves to be timeless. No one says "will people still be listening to music in 100 years" for a reason.

I also read Jack of Fables Vol. 2: Jack of Hearts by a whole bunch of people today. I don't know if i will continue. Jack is such a total jerk and a guy at work told me if i don't like him now i won't like him any better. so, i give this one a 4. we do find out why the Snow Queen became a villian though in the Jack Frost backstory.
at 2:50 PM
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5 comments:

  1. I think Kurt Vonnegut, Matt Ruff, and David Foster Wallace will all be read a 100 years from now. I hope so, anyway. And I hope their works are read on paper, not exclusively on digital devices. There's something very special about the smell of paper that I don't think can be replicated on a Kindle. Although maybe a hundred years from now someone will have developed a paper smell that wafts out of your Kindle?
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  2. I also chose Harry Potter for this question--I think those books will definitely last.

    The novel may have only been around for a few hundred years, but storytelling has been with us for just as long as music has. I think fictional books will survive, but maybe in electronic instead of paper format.
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  3. I think a great number of our fiction writers will be read 100 or 1000 years from now.

    But, novels, read for entertainment (and arousal) only, have been around for a millennium (that we know of).

    The Tale of Genji, by Murasaki Shikibu is a Japanese tome written in the the 11th century. It was pure fiction about everyday Japanese people, and believe it or not, was written by a woman.

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0394735307/$%7B0%7D
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  4. As soon as I read the question, I thought of Toni Morrison. Beloved will be around forever.

    And you're right. I think we forget that the novel is a relatively new form in terms of literary genres. We're still learning what can and cannot be done with the form.
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  5. I think people overstate the quality of "classic" authors.

    The reason they have endured (and 100-150 years is really nothing in the cosmic scale) is that their works were more entertaining than their contemporaries'.

    I think Harry Potter will be read a hundred years hence - Rowlings style is very simple and straightforward.
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