Are we in the new age of romantics?

[Nightshade]

A few things said to me and here recently have been nudging at this thought. Are we in a new stage of romantics as in is the literature of today (ok if you want to be stuffy about the application of literarure are the books esp fiction written today) reflecting similar values to that of the Romantics era?

:D

[smilingtearz]

is there a specific book or text that urges you to think so?

[jackyyyy]

A few things said to me and here recently have been nudging at this thought. Are we in a new stage of romantics as in is the literature of today (ok if you want to be stuffy about the application of literarure are the books esp fiction written today) reflecting similar values to that of the Romantics era?

:DIts an interesting question, but what made you think this? We are always undergoing a revolution of one sort or another, and I have a hard time thinking what more personal freedom's we need today in order to express ourselves (certain societies /situations excepted). Maybe a curbing of some freedom's is what some people would prefer. I also wonder, along those lines, if we are seeing a "numbed out" writing style. Kind of like, having been bombarded with so much, and I mean here, everything from literature, tv, adverts, movies, culturism and so on, that writing style has evolved to the point where we expect it of the reader. I recall reading something somewhere that anticipated I knew what it was on about, and I didn't. It left me feeling I had missed 'an important' tv show, which shouldn't be important at all. I mean, if it had been the News, okay. I am just adding my own thoughts to your comment, but again what makes you think this?

[EAP]

(English) literature has diversified to such an extent that it is impossible to pigeon-hole the products under a specific trend.

Sexual liberation, female empowerment, abortion support, tolerence of socially deviant lifestyles (GLBT, BDSM, Fetishists), freedom of religion (no religion), animal/enoviornment conservationalism, equal rights and anti death penalty are some of the most common themes being espoused in modern western mainstream literature. Taken together, they are a loose reflection of the modern (mainstream western) society's current stance on morality and personal freedoms.

Madonna, T.A.T.U, Richard Dwakins, Susan Sontag, Phoolin Devi, your random NYC bi-sexual drag queen - how tolerent will the 'romantics' be of such figures?


Therein lies your answer.

[mousemouse]

I would say that from a certain point of view, some of the literature today does resemble the romantics (or at least the german romantics). Both do a lot of mixing of styles, and I think that the whole post-modern way of writing if there is one is very much inspired by the romantic writers.
there are in some instances a emphacis on the structure and style and not so much the content. This would have pleased the german romantics who were trying to write "universal poetry", which was to be a mixture of philosophy and poetry (in a very broad way so that poetry includes all fiction). this was to be an expression of God. whom they saw in a holistic way so that earth and everything and everybody on it was part of god.

[Nightshade]

Well it was becasue of the increase mystical outllook. (ghosts magic etc etc etc . The stress on emotion rather than reason.
I guess also the increase in branches of fantasy.
I was thinking that the victorians into the 50s was our age of reason. I wont say since then but say since the the 90s atleast the popular fiction increasingly has 'magic' of some form or other in it. mind you its not magic in the strictest sense maybe mystisim? Angels, ghosts, mythical beings, fairies proper magic books.
And so I was thinking is it new romatics as in the belief in emotion over reason and greater truths and things?:D

[byquist]

I'd like to think that your hope or assertion is accurate -- we need more TLC going on. But, last week reading the content of a couple of reviews of Philip Roth's new novel (I've never read any of his stuff), in some intellectual quarters at least it doesn't look like its happening. On the other hand, lyrics in songs on the radio every day do point in that softer direction. The film "The New World" sought a Romanticism and sincerity, although the film could maybe have been tightened by 15 minutes; got a tad repetitive and indulgent, but it was honest. Rarely do you see people who really, really care about each other. A lot of black & white films had that sincerity and somberness of Romanticism, but that's going back 50 years. There should be a resurgence.

[mono]

The age of new romantics? Hmmm, interesting question, and how interesting the thought of witnessing a tertiary romanticism, following the popular primary and secondary.
Not claiming that diversity of literature never existed, I would like to think that the greatest diversity continues forming. Truly, as time keeps unravelling, the more literature unfolds with each generation, and with each generation, individual authors will form their own styles, inspired by past authors, their surroundings, experiences, etc. The age of new romantics? Sure, but in correspondence to the new romantics' existence comes the new realists, the new transcendentalists, the new philosophers, the new poets (of as many various styles), and even newer editions of past works (translations, interpretations, decodings, etc.).