Today we will do an adaptation. For today's citizens we will attempt to adapt some old works into modern talk. Take the following:
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.
It was the A1 hour, it was a benderpalooza, we was splittin’
wizzies, we was cray-cray fooness, it was karma, we was saying oh no you didn’t,
it was IKR, it was SMH, it was the spring of slay, it was the winter of bye
Felicia, we were woke, we was like bruh, we were dead, we did a swerve—in short
we was full of extra receipts, it was lit and the man was sus, for dank or
salty, and we were throwing shade and gassed.
I can admit it…a little bit is lost in the translation! It makes me wonder though. The words from yesterday often sound strange
to people today, and the words from today will sound strange to those of the
future.
Timeless classics will always be timeless classics
though. Or will they? In my
own experience the classics are being discarded in favor of the modern. Schools don’t read “The Scarlet Letter” or
“Tom Sawyer” anymore. Instead it is “The
Outsiders” or “Holes”. I don’t have anything
against those books. I just think that
we are robbing students of a lot of very good literature by ignoring things
from Shakespeare to C. S. Lewis.
As the amount of media available for consumption continues
to multiply it continues to become more and more difficult to give classic
literature its due. The solution? Well, I will leave that up to you in the
comments.
It seemed just as I was on the cusp of something traditionally 'classic'-- such as fully comprehending arithmetic, they sprung New Math on my generation. Then they assassinated John F. Kennedy, which further skewered our confidence in routine. Along came the Civil Rights Movement, which thwarted otherwise studious classrooms from embracing the "Oldy But Goody" literature collection and armed us instead with radical manifestos bristling with racial ignorance and hatred.
ReplyDeleteFind a list on-line of what was considered 'Classic Literature', I recognize a great many books I have read over my lifetime; very few of them did I read during my teenage years; perhaps a third I read while I was in college, the rest independently during a year-long immersion in what body of literature I felt deprived.
Find ways to make the classics cool.
ReplyDelete