The Classics

i tried to check out a danielle steele book from the library once when i was younger, because i thought the cover was pretty. my mom told me to put it back because it was trash. i concider her very well read, so i put it back and never bothered to read any of her books since.
but once she told me to put back naked lunch by william s burroughs and i did. but later i checked it out with my dad, and later still, i bought it.

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Originally Posted by alicialiv

I understand that their books are not The Classics but should we shun books simply based on the fact that they are not full of literary commentary, alluisons, and such?

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Yes.

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Originally Posted by byucougs

So my question is this: Is there such a thing is a modern classic? Could such books as Lord of the Rings, Chronicles of Narnia, Wizard of Oz be considered a classic. What about Steinbeck? He seems very modern. Is he a classic author? Just some questions to ponder.

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It depends on what you consider modern, but I'd consider some contemporary literature potential classics. Richard Russo's works, for instance.

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Originally Posted by MikeK

A good way to distinguish between classics and run-of-the-mill popular novels is that classics leave a lasting impression while non-classics leave you soon after you put the book down. Classics get better each time you read them(there's more depth), while non-classics seem less interesting each time(you've discovered all there is to know the first time).

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True. I'd also say there has to be some balance between form (literary style) and function (story).

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Originally Posted by Flora

I often meet people, who think the opposite - anything that is elder than fifty years is not worth of their attention. They get annoyed with sentances longer than five words, and judge the book by its age, its cover, the author, saying that it doesnt have anything to do with the world we know today.

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This has some truth to it. There are a lot of people, at least in my experience, that think they are readers, but don't really read anything that doesn't have Fabio on the cover.

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Originally Posted by The Unnamable

A prime example of implicit dumbing down.

Or perhaps you reject the idea of a dumbing down influence at work and instead ascribe all condemnation of its effects as the recalcitrance of an elite terrified by the waning of their power? I am not looking back in anger but forward in despair and around in disgust.

The multicultural aesthetic, to which we should all subscribe, insists that all values are now relative and the only absolute judgments to be made are those that condemn the ‘High Culture’ of the past. History itself is being rewritten as apology. I do not subscribe to view that the entire Western tradition (now dismissed contemptuously as ‘elitist’ and, of course, ‘racist’) is simply another form of white male oppression. All we have been witnessing is the replacement of an ‘elite’ system with a populist agenda through the insistence that everyone is equal and every opinion valid. The remarkable thing about this process is the way that it has advanced unchecked by the charge that there is nothing egalitarian about it.

I am in favour of elites, as are you all. ‘Elite’ refers to “the best or most skilled members of a group”. If I were to have major brain surgery (and I’m sure some of you think that I have had it and it all went horribly wrong), then I would want the operation performed by the best, the medical elite. Any person whose opinion it is that such operations should be carried out with a large dessert spoon covered in custard might have an opinion but not one that I would consider valid. The day will come when we have blind airline pilots.

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Very, very, very well said. Kudos.

The point is Stephen King etc. are all ripping yarns when you are a teenager - I read every King, every pice of sci-fi/fantasy etc I could get my hands on. You will realise that they are pants as you get older!

That's not to say there is no great contemporary fiction - but not by the authors cited at the beginning of this thread. And while I'm at it, I think people talking about Harry Potter, The Da VInce Code etc when they are older than 17 should really be on a non literature site/start reading something else. But then I'm a curmudgeonly git!

I´ve read Harry Potter, Agatha Christie, Isaac Asimov, Stephen King, Danielle Steel, Nora Roberts, Judith Krantz, The Da Vinci Code, and many others criticized here for being "non-classics", or, worse, "trash".
What I think: There are books that you read only for entertainment, and, if they bring you something more, some pearls of wisdom or points for reflection, better. I include in this category Steel, Roberts, Krantz and Agatha Christie (All novels are the same novel, only changes the characters, the places, and some minor plot devices). That doesn´t mean that I don´t like these books. On the contrary, I like them a lot.
And there are books that deal with universal themes, feelings, emotions, situations that everybody has, at least once in a lifetime, or all the time (jealousy, hate, greed, all seven capital sins in this list. After all, we´re only humans). Among these, are the "classics", and I include Potter, LOTR, and all good stuff like Dickens, Austen, Steinbeck, and many others. These are books that make us think, reflect, and bring us more than words.
And in the end, each one of us chooses his list of favourite books, it´s subjective, and up to ourselves.
By the way: I like to read everything, and judge later . I´ve found some very good books, and some trash, but at least I´ve read them first.

Of cousre it's all subjective etc. etc. - but don't make out JK Rowling is in anyway a great author. It's just silly.

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Originally Posted by Chinaski

Of cousre it's all subjective etc. etc. - but don't make out JK Rowling is in anyway a great author. It's just silly.

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LOL… I agree. The fifth book was disappointing. I mean, it wouldn’t hurt if you tried not using the same root word three different times in two sentences. Not saying I’m any better or anything. My writing is horrific :D

To be fair the 'Harry Potter' books are for CHILDREN and although a lot of adults (including myself) have read and enjoyed them they are never going to measure up to most of the classics because there is only so much you can do with children's literature before it becomes something most children will not understand.

Personnally I am of the opinion that it is more important that people READ - whatever that may be - than what they read because it is an experience unlike any other. It just so happened that out of all the books on my reading list at uni this semester the most recently written was the only one I really disliked (grrr Philip Roth...sorry I won't start here) and I liked all the classics on the list. However, I have loved some of the random trash I've read and disliked some of the classics ('Wuthering Heights'? - seriously? Was I missing something?). Just read what you enjoy!