A WORLD EPIC -Neither Western nor Eastern

[Raven Falcon.]

Is it possible to write an epic, one that celebrates the entirety of human civilization, one that alludes to all cultures, one that looks back to human history in all parts of the world, one that discusses the world's society today, one that ponders the fate of humankind in earnest, one that uses science as the major source of poetic inspirations instead of old age myths?

We have had many Western epics since Homer; we have had many Eastern epics since Gilgamesh, but no, we have not had a WORLD EPIC.

Please note that the language must be poetic, not blatant prose.

If one harbors to write such an epic, can one do it?

[JBI]

The closest thing we have is the narrative of modernization (beginning with parts of Europe, but spreading outward). IT is the most wide-spread, globally encompassing narrative in the world. There doesn't seem to be a single country that hasn't coped with it and had to come to terms with it.

Of course, the problem would be the epic itself, but I do not see why someone who is good could not write something that covers much of the world. Global climate change would be another such narrative that covers the whole world.

[Charles Darnay]

We need ther Internetiad, the epic for the early 21st century.

Edit, patent pending?

[paradoxical]

I have to admit, a world epic on the subject of climate change does sound really interesting.

[Des Essientes]

We need ther Internetiad, the epic for the early 21st century.



Stanislaw Lem wrote the Cyberiad several decades ago.

Borges has a story about a poet with the ability to see the entire world, via the magical Aleph, and who chose to focus his verses on minutely describing a sheep shearing factory in new zealand (if I remember the tale correctly). Perhaps his point was that every poet could try to write an epic, encompassing all the world, but that none ever will because "epicness" as was found in Homer is a consequence of a more compact society. Our world is too cosmopolitan, and too vast, and yet still the epic spirit is somehow transmutable to modest modern situations. Describing one day in June in Dublin as experienced by a couple of guys, for example, can be epic in its own way.

[dark desire]

I watched this documentary 'Home' recently on climate change. If it can be described in one word, the word will be 'powerful'.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1014762/

I loved the line the narrator uses - It's too late to be a pessimist.

I don't know if documentaries are what you looked for but this one was no less powerful than a work of fiction.