What are the Modern Classics???

[krishna_lit]

As discussed in various threads on this forum that classic books soon might be outdated for readers because of their language of their time-period and setting... So, now what are the classics of the 21st Century, of this our fast paced facebook generation???

[SilvanDitties]

I don't know about this century, but for recent ones the first thing that comes to mind is Infinite Jest. Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami, and House of Leaves by Mark Danielewski, too. Though this is probably just opinion, but these ones seem like they'd hold up as classics in years to come.

[kelby_lake]

It's very hard to judge. Atonement will inevitably be mentioned so I'll say that (although that might be 1999). It is hard to judge 21st century classics because we don't know how the century will pan out.

To be honest, the fast-paced Facebook generation will only read books if they've been adapted into a film and made their way into popular culture.

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

On that note, Cloud Atlas may become a classic, or at least remembered. I'm about a hundred pages in and it's really a great book--writing, storytelling, good characters, it's all there. Now there's a movie out that's getting Oscar buzz? I think this book will stick around for a while.

I like the mention of House of Leaves, but I don't know--had to determine with books that weird.

[TheFifthElement]

On that note, Cloud Atlas may become a classic, or at least remembered. I'm about a hundred pages in and it's really a great book--writing, storytelling, good characters, it's all there. Now there's a movie out that's getting Oscar buzz? I think this book will stick around for a while.


Cloud Atlas is an excellent book, and Mitchell a fantastic writer. Definitely a future classic. If you enjoy it, I recommend Ghostwritten which is also wonderful. Actually all his books are great (enthuse, enthuse...I'm a bit of a groupie).

Other possibles (most are 21C but a couple are late 20th):
Wolf Hall - Hilary Mantel
Disgrace - J M Coetzee (1999)
C - Tom McCarthy
The Wind Up Bird Chronicle - Haruki Murakami (1995...ish)
The Cave - Jose Saramago
Lost Paradise - Cees Nooteboom
My Name is Red - Orhan Pamuk

[Charles Darnay]

On the other hand - will there be "new classics" or will a combination of market saturation and changing reading technologies which work against book preservation - will these destroy the idea of the classic book?

But of course, you can never tell what history will remember. Murakami is great - but will he be remembered? Will his surrealistic writing have any bearing in 100, 200, 500 years? Who knows.

[VERONIQUE]

No great novel of outstanding and lasting significant merit has been written so far in this century and that is without question

[krishna_lit]

No great novel of outstanding and lasting significant merit has been written so far in this century and that is without question

Oh! that is a bit aboveboard... But, why do u say so?

[Mutatis-Mutandis]

no great novel of outstanding and lasting significant merit has been written so far in this century and that is without question

VERONIQUE has SPOKEN!

[E.A Rumfield]

Oh! that is a bit aboveboard... But, why do u say so?

It's only been 12 years.

[Paulclem]

On the other hand - will there be "new classics" or will a combination of market saturation and changing reading technologies which work against book preservation - will these destroy the idea of the classic book?

But of course, you can never tell what history will remember. Murakami is great - but will he be remembered? Will his surrealistic writing have any bearing in 100, 200, 500 years? Who knows.

I think classics are more accessible with e-readers as they are free. It's £8 + for a paperback copy, and so I think the classic list will increase.

I think it would be difficult to predict which book will become a classic, though there are already some obvious candidates mentioned by Fifth. The subject matter has to be relevant across time, despite the context, with the thought not constrained by the period so as to make it obscure/ unintelligible to the reader. Clarity of writing might help too.

[ralfyman]

Check out the titles of recent works included in the Everyman series, Modern Library, Library of America, etc.

[mortalterror]

A couple contenders

2008 August: Osage County by Tracy Letts
2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2004 Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
2004 2666 by Roberto Bolano
2004 Memories of My Melancholy Whores by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
2004 Wolf Totem by Lu Jiamin
2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
2003 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
2002 Kafka on the Shore by Haruki Murakami
2002 The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard
2001 The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
2001 The Human Stain by Philip Roth
2000 Ravelstein by Saul Bellow
2000 The Feast of the Goat by Mario Vargas Llosa
2000 A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers

[Paulclem]

I read The Road last year, and was struck by his attempt to develp a realistic human response to a devastating disaster scenario.(Apart from the mythic ending). I got the impression that he was doing for Apocalyptic literature what Golding was doing for survival literature in Lord of the Flies - trying to add some realism to the human response.

I recently finished Blood Meridian by him too, and I got the same impression about his perception of the Mexican Indian wars and the scalping duties paid. I think he's definately a contender, particularly with Blood Meridian as it approaches established - though not widely publicised - historical events with the same kind of attempted realism he used in The Road.

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightime is an interesting one. it's very much entrenched in it's time, but with a fresh perspective. I wonder if future people would get it?

[kelby_lake]

A couple contenders

2008 August: Osage County by Tracy Letts


Ah, yes, I thought this was great. Reminded me of Miller (in a warped way) and O'Neill.

[Gloria_]

My candidates are Josè Saramago's "Blindness", "Seeing" and "The Gospel according to Jesus Christ". Unique and intriguing style combined with strong messages often make a classic: Saramago gives the reader both. And so much more.

[Eiseabhal]

A classic in literature has to be a book still being read over a hundred years (arbitrary round figure) after its composition / publication. So modern and classic do not go together. A bit like " modern Scottish literature" and " good" do not go together.

[Anton Hermes]

I think The Flame Alphabet by Ben Marcus is a novel with the ability to be read in the future as demonstrating the alienation of the 21st century human in the rubble of our cherished cultural certainties.


A classic in literature has to be a book still being read over a hundred years (arbitrary round figure) after its composition / publication. So modern and classic do not go together. A bit like " modern Scottish literature" and " good" do not go together.
So Scots like James Kelman, Alasdair Gray, and Janice Galloway aren't even writing "good" literature, let alone potentially classic work? Hmm.

[Eiseabhal]

Well they are dull depressing people writing dull depressing texts adopting a particular poseur attitude to life . I exclude Galloway from the poseur bit. Kelman's most important contribution to scotland is his work with men suffering from their exposure to asbestos (A very common material in the shipyards where I served my time as a young man). Although Gray has a certain drollery he is an artist first and a very mediocre writer second. Now that Jenkins has gone there is only Allan Massie of any stature as regards ability and aspiration. Young Mr Drummond is entertaining but he is very whimsical at present. I enjoy him but he needs to show me a serious text that displays sensitivity before I can go further than that. Being crude, shocking, humourless and determinedly pessimistic seems to be the "in" thing with the modern Scottish scribbler.

[Anton Hermes]

Wow. It's odd that you find a complete lack of the things I find most interesting in the new-ish Scottish fiction writers: wit, imagination, and authenticity.

[manuscript]

i work in a bookstore and i always need clarification when people ask me where the classics are. do they mean the literatures of classical antiquity? or do they mean works of fiction from say the last five hundred years, of the kind that are published in the "penguin classics" imprint? they could just as easily mean either, and they do just as often mean one as the other.

and then there are other questions generated by the idea of modern classics. do we mean early modern, a term which is now used to refer to the beginnings of english as we now know it - the english that became current after middle english? or do we mean the period of what we call modernism, primarily 20th century books, with some earlier examples, defined by a range of particular textual features? perhaps we mean neither of these technical terms, but what we actually mean is something more like "contemporary literature".

the OP mentioned a concern with times changing. the books mentioned on this thread are a kind of mixed spectrum. i have read some of them and i think it is possible that their appeal may turn out to be more temporally popular than lasting. while everyone is reading them, to me the writing and content just do not seem to be up to scratch by comparison to the historical literary tradition. i mean come on, how is it possible no one mentioned Atwood or Byatt? but i admit, i could be completely wrong! some people think The Old Man And The Sea is the best book ever written, and im sure a lot of people think Coelho's The Alchemist is the best book ever written too, although to me they seem like just exactly the same crap with different smells. but dont worry about me, i am just bitter about the wide range of incredibly brilliant genre fiction that is shunned by both publishers and audiences for being uncool. i guess that i hope they will be discovered later, kind of like the way moby dick left melville destitute.

more popular and accessible works have always existed. it is not just the facebook generation that has desired fast-paced written entertainment rather than philosophical literary engagement. it is wonderful to enjoy entertaining fiction. but more literary works will always endure in print and be sought out regardless of the difficulty people have in reading them. many of us will have encountered raw shakespeare by age 13.

[booklover1971]

[QUOTE=mortalterror;1182049]A couple contenders

2006 The Road by Cormac McCarthy
2003 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon
2003 The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini

I loved these three novel's

[Literature5]

No one has mentioned Life of Pi, an easy shoe-in for notable modern classics.

[aaron stark]

I absolutely loved Margaret Atwood's Oryx and Crake. Don't know about you guys?

[JuniperWoolf]

My candidates are Josè Saramago's "Blindness".

No! Bad book, bad! *squirts with water bottle*

[mal4mac]

Josè Saramago's "Blindness". No! Bad book, bad! *squirts with water bottle*

I agree with Gloria, I think it's a great book. Why don't you like it? For me, it had a gripping plot that explored the situation of apocalyptic mass blindness with depth & precision. The total lack of obtuse experimentalism was also refreshing. A literary work that you can actually read! Puts him in the tradition of the greatest authors of apocalypse, alongside like H.G. Wells. The Nobel prize committee had a good day when they chose him.

[ennison]

I've just read your comment above Eiseabhal and I agree but you state what's wrong with them far more politely than these bs deserve.

[Eiseabhal]

Oh bha mi a feuchainn a bhi modhail. I do think there is a genuine streak in Kelman but I know you are not alone in detesting them. I certainly find one of these fellows and his bar brawling loudmouthed terrorist supporting views quite vile.