I love how the original tweet just completely ignores the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley. The OG weird girls. Foremothers to every Goth intellectual with a shitty poetry side blog. I’d argue that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a more commonly referenced and understood work than 99% of Shakespeare’s plays, but that could be sample bias, as I mostly read fantasy/horror anyhow.
Their argument (if you can call it that) also sidesteps how, yes, sometimes teens *are* deeply annoyed by classics because of the class/race/gender dynamics they contain. But they should still be given the tools to examine why that is, and determine for THEMSELVES what themes and character dynamics are irksome, which are an essential part of the genre and which are an essential part of the author’s worldview.
I read Emma as a poor teen and couldn’t stand it; Emma creating non-issues for herself instead of minding her own business annoyed me on a spiritual level, and I was just bored overall. Disliked Clueless for similar reasons (now *that* is an opinion that didn’t go over well). Am I now biased against Jane Austen and the novel of manners as a concept? Yes! Did I learn something important about my own taste in protagonists? Also yes!
Even disappointing reading experiences can be fruitful. Disappointment is the great spice of life and excellent fuel for idea generation.
I also think that part of students not enjoying certain Classics is them being unaccustomed to reading plays and poetry. Those are separate learning curves from learning to read a novel. It’s still hard for me to read Shakespeare simply because of the formatting.
Okay, sorry but I decided to delete all the comments debating whether European art is superior to art from other cultures as that's absolutely the opposite of the points I was trying to make and this is my personal news letter not an open forum.
To be clear to Kit and Ani, I agree with what you said about the argument being racist. But I'd rather remove the whole thread from this wall (including my own comments). Just rather not have that archived here.
Obviously they're not talking about modern language or society, but "those of a non-European descent" (Murusaki Shikibu) and "those who are... non-heterosexual?" (I don't actually even know wtf queer means, but you could point to Lord Byron's works, William Beckford, Oscar Wilde... they were in a wildly different pagan social structure but you could mention Homer's Iliad, which is debatable, or a good chunk of Aristophanes plays, like the conversation between Dionysus and Heracles in The Frogs)
We're talking about people complaining about this shit today too, not at the time of writing. Someone who lived in Boietia or Athens has no idea what (modern) homosexuality is, but somebody today would consider an eromenos "homosexual"
Perfectly observed! Oscar Wilde inspired me in my youth when I discovered Dorian Gray, and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment was not the boring read I expected. I especially appreciate literature as it gives us a part of history that wasn’t always dictated by the winners, as does any art.
I love how the original tweet just completely ignores the Brontë sisters and Mary Shelley. The OG weird girls. Foremothers to every Goth intellectual with a shitty poetry side blog. I’d argue that Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein is a more commonly referenced and understood work than 99% of Shakespeare’s plays, but that could be sample bias, as I mostly read fantasy/horror anyhow.
Their argument (if you can call it that) also sidesteps how, yes, sometimes teens *are* deeply annoyed by classics because of the class/race/gender dynamics they contain. But they should still be given the tools to examine why that is, and determine for THEMSELVES what themes and character dynamics are irksome, which are an essential part of the genre and which are an essential part of the author’s worldview.
I read Emma as a poor teen and couldn’t stand it; Emma creating non-issues for herself instead of minding her own business annoyed me on a spiritual level, and I was just bored overall. Disliked Clueless for similar reasons (now *that* is an opinion that didn’t go over well). Am I now biased against Jane Austen and the novel of manners as a concept? Yes! Did I learn something important about my own taste in protagonists? Also yes!
Even disappointing reading experiences can be fruitful. Disappointment is the great spice of life and excellent fuel for idea generation.
I also think that part of students not enjoying certain Classics is them being unaccustomed to reading plays and poetry. Those are separate learning curves from learning to read a novel. It’s still hard for me to read Shakespeare simply because of the formatting.
Okay, sorry but I decided to delete all the comments debating whether European art is superior to art from other cultures as that's absolutely the opposite of the points I was trying to make and this is my personal news letter not an open forum.
To be clear to Kit and Ani, I agree with what you said about the argument being racist. But I'd rather remove the whole thread from this wall (including my own comments). Just rather not have that archived here.
?
"It’s a complete erasure of centuries of writing by women, queer writers, people of color, and authors from around the world."
There is no such thing as 'Queer' or 'People of Colour' before 2000.
Those are constructs relevant only in our current era, and then only probably in the Angloshphere.
Let's not make the mistake of projecting or current culture wars back into the past.
Obviously they're not talking about modern language or society, but "those of a non-European descent" (Murusaki Shikibu) and "those who are... non-heterosexual?" (I don't actually even know wtf queer means, but you could point to Lord Byron's works, William Beckford, Oscar Wilde... they were in a wildly different pagan social structure but you could mention Homer's Iliad, which is debatable, or a good chunk of Aristophanes plays, like the conversation between Dionysus and Heracles in The Frogs)
We're talking about people complaining about this shit today too, not at the time of writing. Someone who lived in Boietia or Athens has no idea what (modern) homosexuality is, but somebody today would consider an eromenos "homosexual"
Perfectly observed! Oscar Wilde inspired me in my youth when I discovered Dorian Gray, and Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment was not the boring read I expected. I especially appreciate literature as it gives us a part of history that wasn’t always dictated by the winners, as does any art.