Monday, February 25, 2008

Persisting Over Mountains, Rivers, Fields, Vallies, and Time.

Many great works of literature derive their greatness from their ability to depict life in a certain era. In Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain brilliantly painted a portrait of life for a small town, southern, white boy in the early twentieth century; August Wilson created a series of ten plays, each one tied to a specific time period; the beat authors and poets - Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg,
William S. Burroughs, etc. - all helped to chisel out a distinct niche for the counterculture of their decade. While all these literary works can be considered great, the thing that truly makes them enduring - the thing that keeps them from being cast into obsolescence by their ties to the antiquated past - is their ability to communicate a universal message. A piece of literary work can be tied to a specific era, but in order to transcend the time barrier and remain loved for centuries to come, the piece must explore issues and questions that will extend past the time of the author. Walt Whitman dealt with the idea of a universal oversoul; he believed that all people, regardless of their geographic or chronological location, are tied together by simple pleasures and timeless themes, which will persist until the end of time. While few people have had to deal with the duplicity of Injun Joe, almost everyone can relate to Tom Sawyer's childish curiosity, boyhood bravery, and impecable sense of adventure. Time transcendent topics such as these have the ability to make a work last forever.

2 comments:

gabby said...

heyyy. i agree with your comment and i also think you have a good points in this entry.

jun0- is my all time favorite movie and i;m totally glad you liked it. you should purhcase the soudtrack, it's equally amazzing. i also realy like little miss sunshine which is kind of similar...what you seen it?

a_random_guy said...

Hey, remember me? Your certainly as verbose as ever. I had a specific question about this particular entry. You state that

"While all these literary works can be considered great, the thing that truly makes them enduring - the thing that keeps them from being cast into obsolescence by their ties to the antiquated past -is their ability to communicate a universal message...to transcend the time barrier and remain loved for centuries to come, the piece must explore issues and questions that will extend past the time of the author."

I certainly agree with this idea, and kudos for spotting it, but I can't help thinking that their must be something more there. For every "Black Boy" "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Tom Sawyer" there are as many books explore many of the same issues in -some would argue- equally as effective ways, and yet these fall into obscurity. Sometimes, they are given the label of "classic" and then allowed to fall into the void. I can't remember the last time I heard anything about "Treasure Island" for example-incidentally, I'm not saying that "Treasure Island" explores anything as sensitive as racism-far from it-all I'm saying here is that this supposedly great novel, this so called classic, no longer has enough bearing to be considered relevant by a vast majority of people, however unfortunate that may be.

I would say what makes a book truly great, in addition to a universal message is the idea of "universal appeal." Ergo, a book can take a look at several scathing issues and be a truly great work of art-but if nobody reads it, it is doomed to the bargain bin. No, I believe that in order to become truly great, a book must not only present a universal message, but be a book that people can connect and speak about it, no matter where they hail from.

As usual, all this is merely opinion and conjecture. I'd be happy to hear back from you.