Comments on Cynical Optimism: BTT for 11/19

I think people overstate the quality of "clas...

2009-11-24T02:19:28.027-06:00

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.

As soon as I read the question, I thought of Toni ...

2009-11-21T21:03:56.041-06:00

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.

I think a great number of our fiction writers will...

2009-11-21T11:54:07.300-06:00

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

I also chose Harry Potter for this question--I thi...

2009-11-21T11:40:08.747-06:00

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.

I think Kurt Vonnegut, Matt Ruff, and David Foster...

2009-11-21T10:54:37.972-06:00

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?