Let's say a hypothetical author is writing a novel destined to be a timeless classic. She or he is almost finished with it now!
It's a "culture bearing" book like much of the classic literature...ever relevant but also capturing the cultural essence of the age in which it was conceived.
What do you think would be some of the themes and situations in the novel?
...and no, I'm not a down-and-out novelist trawling for ideas.
Last edited by TacoButt; 12-30-2010 at 09:53 PM.
Obviously, it would be how a person chooses to live out there final year on Earth before the Apocalypse (2012). Obviously.
Obviously...Originally Posted by AlfredtheGreat
Lots of opportunity for irony there too..."an enduring message of impending doom".
How about a novel that is written entirely in Twitter messages?
J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.
- Rimbaud
I think it will be about how an up-and-coming, folksy politician overcomes all odds and ran for senate even though she's a witch. It could be a trilogy.
Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 12-30-2010 at 11:26 PM.
is anything of our ephemeral culture possibly going to be not only cherished by future generations but even perdurably relevant or enlightening? i can't help thinking they'll look back at our realism fiction and find it all terribly shallow. of course i'm likely wrong- someone will write a devastating yet witty dystopian novel about a commercialistic ethos which will be exemplary and yet which whom are of such a generation will come to repudiate simply because it makes our salient features so despicable or vapid.
Bist du beschränkt, daß neues Wort dich stört?
Willst du nur hören, was du schon gehört?
I've actually been wondering this myself - is writing dead? In the past 20 years I can't think of any novels which will be timeless except a handful, and those few are criticizing their own times.
I suppose this is at the heart of why I asked this question. The real question I have is, "What does our culture have to say about life that is enduring and filled with beauty and wisdom?"
What would the opening line be, "Call me Snooki?"
A novel can't be timeless until some time passes. We won't know if anything contemporary will be a good period piece until at least 50 years down the road, and that still isn't enough.
Anyways, to be serious, I think some of the themes that could be used that could really capture our current culture would be technology (specifically communications technology--i.e., internet, cellphones), media created political division (or, political division in general--not a theme unique to our time, but still relevant), economic uncertainty, and mass apathy towards important issues--sure, people say they are worried about this or that, or stand for this or that, but barely anyone does anything about it. And, maybe for some humor, throw in reality TV.
Last edited by Mutatis-Mutandis; 12-31-2010 at 01:06 AM.
It's hard to feature technology because of how rapidly it changes. Like in Imperial Bedrooms Bret Easton Ellis references Myspace and that makes the writing feel dated. So it's hard to write about how technology influences our lives because it will quickly become dated.
True, but something being dated is what makes a period piece a period piece. Everything in The Great Gatsby is dated, but that's why it's so important; it gives us a view into the Jazz Age.
To be honest themes rarely make a book great, I mean the same themes found in harry potter are found in most classic buildungromans. It is always about the quality of writing, rather than any themes, the relevance to society come naturally by it's self.
Quick question. Since "he or she is almost finished with it now," I'm curious as to what the actual chosen themes are!
Seriously, though, I was thinking along the lines of Alexander III when I jokingly suggested the form of Twitter messages for the work--this being, of course, a ha-ha mimetic device or whatever. Themes emerge on their own when you focus on humanity as you know it (your concept being shaped by your cultural milieu) and on the prose itself. I agree with Nabokov that the purpose of the novel is aesthetic bliss, but I don't believe that's all it's good for! If a human being, who is part of the stitching of this organism we call culture, is writing from within him/herself (as opposed to writing for the sole purpose of entertainment), then there is no way all that is produced is simply aesthetic bliss.
J'ai seul la clef de cette parade sauvage.
- Rimbaud
I don't entirely agree with this. It also comes down to how memorable are the characters, how memorable is the story dealing with the theme, and the approach to the theme itself. We could all write a story with a theme about the regret of growing up and we'd all not only write very different stories with very different plots with very different characters to explore that issue, we'd also all probably have sightly different things to say about the issue itself, even though, we're all technically writing about the same theme.
"You understand well enough what slavery is, but freedom you have never experienced, so you do not know if it tastes sweet or bitter. If you ever did come to experience it, you would advise us to fight for it not with spears only, but with axes too." - Herodotus
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I somehow doubt it will be in the novel form, perhaps in the form of film, but the novel is quite exhausted as a form.
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