Two weeks ago our paper printed a column about literature by a Mississippi teacher in which she said, “I despise classics. I do my best to avoid them like the plague. Give me modern novels, poetry, plays and speeches. Give me stories based in the contemporary age with prose that I can understand.”
Many people agree with her. They “despise” the classics and want to read only what is current and understandable in today’s culture, written in familiar words of one or two syllables.
How sad.
She says that she finally made herself read a few books from a list she found entitled “100 Years of Popular Books.” These she took to be “classics,” though the oldest books on the list were written in 1923, not that old as classics go. I would call them Barely Classics.
The word classics originally referred to works of art produced by Greece or Rome because those were supposed to be the most perfect pieces of their kind ever produced, for example, dramas such as Oedipus Rex by Sophocles or the statue of Venus.
Today, a classic is defined as a work which serves as an example of excellence; something of recognized value and relevance.
A literary classic has stood the test of time, meaning it is still read, enjoyed and found relevant after 100 or more years. Its language, its social conventions and the costumes of its characters may be out-dated, but its themes and subjects still resonate today.
By that standard, The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne is a classic worth reading. Its situation, in which young Hester Prynne has a child out of wedlock, is so common today that it would barely cause a raised eyebrow, unfortunately. Not enough shock value. But its themes of social condemnation, male dominance, sin, guilt and redemption are as relevant today as when the novel was published in 1850.
Another true classic is Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities. Though the French Revolution that provides the conflict of the plot happened 234 years ago and the language is British English from 1859, people still read this classic because its themes of social division, the cost of political change, and sacrificial love remain universal.
George Orwell’s novel 1984 is one of those barely classics that doesn’t even meet the standard of 100 years in existence. So you will recognize more of its words and situations. When it was published in 1949, it was described as “a dystopian social science fiction novel” that was chilling to read, but it couldn’t come true, could it? America wasn’t like that, was it? But now that Big Brother really IS watching us, people are rereading this (barely)) classic with a personal interest. It no longer seems like science fiction. It seems right on point.
Readers who insist that the classics are too boring and “old school” to read are missing a great deal of pleasure and a part of their education.
If your reading keeps you locked into today’s society, you will think that everything that is happening is new, that today’s thoughts are fresh and brilliant and that today’s political movements have never been tried before. Remember, those who don’t know history are doomed to repeat it.
Reading modern books only, you’ll assume books were always written to try to breech today’s very high shock level. Society has tolerated so much violence and immorality that I hate to think what description a writer would have to produce to truly shock today’s readers. The classics allow you to focus on character and theme, not blood and guts and gross immorality.
Those who demand today’s streamlined prose will miss the severe beauty of the descriptive passages in a novel like Thomas Hardy’s The Return of the Native (1878). Hardy’s novels are not written for readers with ADHD. They take time to digest, but they’re worth it.
Readers who demand today’s prose in which words are dumbed down to “vacay” for vacation, “merch” for merchandise and “peeps” for people would certainly be too challenged to read 200-year-old words, many of which contained three or more syllables (!) and might require them to find a dictionary. So their own vocabulary will remain forever stunted, as is the vocabulary of so many people today.
Enjoy the many modern novels available to us. Some of them will become classics. But focus on a real classic under your reading lamp and watch your mind expand.
