Only the Best Literature

[Silverfridge]

At the beginning of this year, I realised i could no longer enjoy reading modern day books. They were so abhorrently cliched and dull.
Naturally, I began reading Dickens, Poe, Hugo, James, Lovecraft, and have never looked back.
Now, I still cannot bear to read anything written within fifty years save a few exceptional authors such as Roald Dahl's adult short stories.
My question is there anybody else with only a taste for what I term harshly Real Literature? or share contempt for what is written these days?

(quite aggravating when year 12 school course includes Wintons cloudstreet. While a good author of today, my standards are exceptionally high, as my choice of authors probably explains.)

[Jean-Baptiste]

Welcome to the forums, Silverfridge! :wave:
I'd like you to expound on what you consider "harshly Real Literature" to be. I think I agree with you, as far as my interpretation of that goes, but I'd like to hear more of your thoughts on it. One of the things I always find myself pleading of any author is to tell me something real. However, I'm confused by your term (not that I disagree) only by contrast with the list of authors that you offer--as I wouldn't consider them harshly real, or even necessarily realistic writers--Lovecraft, Poe, and Joyce especially. So this leads me to believe that I'm misinterpreting your usage. Do you simply mean real as in intimately involved in human emotions and reaction? That is what I would like most to see in contemporary authors. Anyway, your list looks excellent; I commend you on that. As for contempt for what is written these days, I can say that I used to share that with you, but I think I'm starting to change my mind. I've been finding some absolutely great and authentic and unique contemporary authors lately, and I know that I've only scratched the surface. I won't say that you SHOULD give them another go--by all means, read what appeals to you immediately. In fact, I think there are enough great classics out there to keep a person busy for several lifetimes. And Kierkegaard said that Education is catching up with oneself; I suppose we should know what's been done before moving on to what's being done--that would seem ideal. Anyway, a couple of the contemporary authors that I've been impressed with lately, who have given me faith that literature will survive, are Toni Morrison, and Rudolfo Anaya. Give them a try, if you're concerned about the new direction of literature. If not, happily read what you want!

[loe]

In fact, I think there are enough great classics out there to keep a person busy for several lifetimes.

Yes - I guess, I'm such a person. ;)
I very seldom read authors who are still alive. (for example Umberto Eco is one of them).

If Real Literature = classical, then I'm guilty ;) , but I don't contempt modern literature, I'm maybe a little disappointed, because, I can't find something new in it. I know, that this is some kind of prejudice, because I don't read enough of the modern stuff to can judge, but so it is: I love Dostoyevsky and Proust much more than Dan Brown. :)

Greetings

[Annamariah]

I read a lot both old and new books, and I don't think that either group is really any "better" than the other.

Of course literature has changed a lot from what it used to be, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's interesting to read books where the same things are looked from different angles and approached in varying ways.

Masterpieces and failures can be found from old literature as well as modern literature.

[Silverfridge]

Ill choice of words there. Apologies:P
What i meant to say by "Real Literature" is not that they are realistic, for what is life (and Literature) without the imagination? The Dictionary explains: Reality is the quality of something that is real, and Real is but having verified existence? I personally believe such naivety an incredible flaw; Why believe or disbelieve anything merely to agree with the masses?
By use of the statement, I do not believe that other books, such as contemporary pieces are necessarily literature; society today refers vaguely to anything printed on paper as literature (excuse the slight exaggeration)
There is no such thing as a Modern day Classic! such a statement is purely contradictive.

Hope I have answered your question in appropriate detail
and i forgot Dostoyevsky and Melville on that list of mine:P

Cheers

[EAP]

^

Well, it's your choice. Perhaps you just haven't come across the right books? Tim Winton is hardly the best writer of the modern era.

Have you read any of the following books?

Haruki Murakami's Norwegian Wood. George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Peter Acroyd's Hawksmoor. Dan Simmons's Hyperion. Salman Rushdie's Midnight Children. Arundhati Roy's God of Small Things.