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Or, at least, we discuss what makes a work of fiction "classic," and that has to be worth something, right?
We follow up with A Bit of Story from the "so-unknown-it-must-be-classic" Story Project and finish with a mini Take on Tales. So, if you've been pining for some Derailed Trains of Thought, we've got you covered. It might not be Shakespeare, but who wants to read that ancient fuddy-duddy stuff anyway?
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Yay, my favorite story based podcast is back! I don't have too much to comment on, because sadly I haven't read many of the "classics." Since I was home schooled for high school, I missed out of the time period when I would've been forced to read most of them. I'll try to catch up on them since I have a kindle, and most classics are pretty much free nowadays.
ReplyDeleteOne trend I've been noticing in recent literature that bothers me and wonders if it'll keep them from becoming classics is the mentioning of such modern things as songs, bands, and tv shows from our time period. The moment any of those are mentioned in a book, it puts a time stamp on when the story was written. One thing I appreciate about, say, Calvin and Hobbes is the lack of mentioning things from the pop culture of the time period it was written in. Because of that, you can read any of those comics and they'll ring true to any time period. When I write, I want to strive to stick with the same aura of timelessness that classics have.
As for cult classics, I define them as "stories that are classic, but the whole world cannot grasp the awesomeness." For example, The Expendables out performing Scott Pilgrim VS the World at the box office.
As for The Legend of Korra, I don't have cable anymore, so I have to wait for a DVD release. =( So sad.
And great story and excellent reading by Brianna. I will read The Story Project one of these days, like how I will watch The Taylor Trilogy one day.
Hope to hear from you both in podcast form soon!
We're glad to be back.
ReplyDeleteIt was nice to read classics in high school. Well, some of them. Not Tess of the D'urbervilles. Not at all. Hamlet, yes. Tale of Two Cities, absolutely. Just not Mr. Thomas Hardy. Jury's still out of Wuthering Heights. ;-)
I agree with your thought about pop culture. This is probably one reason G.K. Chesterton's fiction is still around but his apparently voluminous journalism is largely uninteresting to the normal (or abnormal) person. I also think more modern books tend to have less of a foundation in Christian thought, which makes them less able to talk about big ideas like redemption and grace, at least in a way that matters to me.
A cult classic can also be "awesome stories no one has seen yet," which used to be my way of describing The Castle of Cagliostro.