Block Buster Blues
And, no, I don't have a beef with the movie/dvd store. My problem is with our block buster mentality, especially we writers. We want the new thing, we want to read it momentarily, have its newness make us feel good, and then we discard . . . as though the new thing had no value beyond the moment.
We are so adverse to classics that we refuse to let anything become a classic. Our generation doesn't want classics. It just wants new, new, new. Resonance is dead. Apparently all fictional work becomes meaningless after six months. Or it just gets washed away in a wave of new fiction. Not necessarily great fiction . . . just new.
Think of the movie American Beauty . . . try to remember for a moment how you felt when you watched that movie. I mean, come on . . . the plastic grocery bag scene? That movie was among the best I've ever seen. Who still watches it or talks about it? Maybe a few people . . . but not like some people talk about On the Waterfront. The generations that came before us allowed themselves to revere the past. We are reviled by the past. And, it's a shame because On the Waterfront is still an incredible movie that deals with themes that are still relevant to us. And, American Beauty is still incredible, too, despite its age.
Why don't we talk about older writers very much? How does The Women on the Wall, a strong collection of stories by Wallace Stegner, have nearly no sales rank on amazon. It's SO much better than many of the contemporary collections I've read. The guy was a master writer. What's wrong with that? We should revere and READ our masters. We have to know where we've been to understand where we're going. And, it's not just about the history of the "craft"; it's also about the idea that many of those older books still have something to say.
Just my rant for the day.
Oh, by the way, I'm not saying "to hell with contemporary writing". On the contrary, I think we should be blending our reading. A little from the past, a little from the present. My next book to read is End Credits out from Casperian Books within the past year.
Also, I'm not saying read "classics" necessarily. The Women on the Wall and The Leaning Tower and Other Stories are not considered classics . . . not in the strict sense that Moby Dick is a classic. I'm just saying not to look at publication dates on books like they are expiration dates. You're only hurting yourself if you have the "newest is greatest" mentality.
We are so adverse to classics that we refuse to let anything become a classic. Our generation doesn't want classics. It just wants new, new, new. Resonance is dead. Apparently all fictional work becomes meaningless after six months. Or it just gets washed away in a wave of new fiction. Not necessarily great fiction . . . just new.
Think of the movie American Beauty . . . try to remember for a moment how you felt when you watched that movie. I mean, come on . . . the plastic grocery bag scene? That movie was among the best I've ever seen. Who still watches it or talks about it? Maybe a few people . . . but not like some people talk about On the Waterfront. The generations that came before us allowed themselves to revere the past. We are reviled by the past. And, it's a shame because On the Waterfront is still an incredible movie that deals with themes that are still relevant to us. And, American Beauty is still incredible, too, despite its age.
Why don't we talk about older writers very much? How does The Women on the Wall, a strong collection of stories by Wallace Stegner, have nearly no sales rank on amazon. It's SO much better than many of the contemporary collections I've read. The guy was a master writer. What's wrong with that? We should revere and READ our masters. We have to know where we've been to understand where we're going. And, it's not just about the history of the "craft"; it's also about the idea that many of those older books still have something to say.
Just my rant for the day.
Oh, by the way, I'm not saying "to hell with contemporary writing". On the contrary, I think we should be blending our reading. A little from the past, a little from the present. My next book to read is End Credits out from Casperian Books within the past year.
Also, I'm not saying read "classics" necessarily. The Women on the Wall and The Leaning Tower and Other Stories are not considered classics . . . not in the strict sense that Moby Dick is a classic. I'm just saying not to look at publication dates on books like they are expiration dates. You're only hurting yourself if you have the "newest is greatest" mentality.
posted by Jeff Vande Zande at 8:21 PM
1 Comments:
Do you think this is something different now than in previous eras? I think probably there is a fairly long period between when something is new and when it can become a classic.
Maybe part of this is because if something is only a little "out-dated" it's just out-dated. If it's a generation old or more, then it can be regarded in a more approving way.
This could apply to style or form, but more specifically I would point as an example to technology details. For instance, if you read a "contemporary" story about someone popping a cassette tape into a player today, one might think, hmm, this story's kinda old (unless it's specifically dated to a definite period, or there's a specific reason this old technology is in here). (Dial and pay telephones, the lack of Internet use will do this too, CDs will soon have the same effect, if not already.)
On the other hand, if you read a story intended as a contemporary story, and it mentions someone starting up the ol' wax cylinder to listen to some J.P. Sousa, the reader will allow the charmingness of reading from another time, sufficiently long ago.
I think that ultimately, cream does eventually rise to the top. But the audience for quiet masterpieces is a miniscule fraction of that for the constant tidal wave of new crap.
I give you this though, I bet a lot of it depends on what is face-out on the Borders shelf. Fortunately, I think these new-fangled "Internets" they have out there today will continue to enable small communities with similar interests to find and share lost should-be-classics more than ever before.
That's my unconsidered blurt of cow malarkey, anyway.
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