Someone discussed how they didn't really like Shakespeare in their last blog post, and I completely agree. I just want to elaborate on this topic.
We spend too much time admiring the "classics" that we often forget that modern literature is just as good. I actually prefer modern literature because it's more relevant to me, the stories are often more fascinating, and I can focus on the story itself rather than spend most of my energy deciphering the ancient jargon that Shakespeare and his contemporaries use.
Yes, Shakespeare and company were phenomenal writers, and they're work was truly groundbreaking. However, they were so popular for a long time because the language they used was relevant to their time periods. Language, especially English, has evolved significantly over the past century. Therefore, the diction and language structure that the classic writers used are no longer relevant to modern society. Because I have some difficulty understanding what the classic writers are trying to say, I don't fully appreciate their stories. And why does the language have to be so complex for a book to have literary merit? We say stories like Harry Potter don't compare with the likes of Hamlet or The Inferno. But why not? I read the entire Harry Potter series and I loved every page of it. I read both Hamlet and The Inferno and I loathed them both. First off, the plot of Harry Potter is mesmerizing. Only modern works have this kind of imagination and fantasy. The plots in Shakespeare's works, however, are recycled over and over again. Modern society demands innovation, and that's why stories like Harry Potter and the Hunger Games are so popular. The classics have become cliches, overused throughout the hundreds of years of their existence.
Time shouldn't determine the literary merit of a story. In my opinion, modern stories easily rival, and sometimes surpass, the greatness of the classics. We should stop putting so much emphasis on the classics because of their timelessness because new, great stories are emerging, and they deserve the same amount of recognition.
Hmm i wonder who last wrote about lack of enthusiasm for Shakespeare :) Anyway... i like how you mentioned the stories being too cliche. It is a great point. All of our AP essays and other class assignments all deal with themes that can be taken from the Odyssey, Hamlet, Macbeth and other "scholarly" books. It is time to change it up and bring in modern literature to our English class education! As you said our world has evolved and so has the problems and ideas of society too. We need to stop being forced to read about stories from hundreds of years ago and focus on our modern stories that have just as much scholarly merit.
ReplyDeleteI can honestly see why we read stories like “The Inferno”, “Crime and Punishment”, and even “Macbeth” in English class today; they are classics. But when you think about it, how does a story become a classic? I know there’s an array of things that go into deciding which stories are of high literary merit and which are not, but who says that “Harry Potter” will never be in that group? Who knows, maybe years from now the book series that are popular in our world today will make that list of merit. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed a number of the books that have been read in English class over the years, but at the same time I don’t think adding a book from more recent years could hurt. I mean, books and series that are popular in today’s society are popular for a reason: they contain storylines that are relevant to the world we live in today. So why shouldn’t we read this type of material as well?
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