I had two different conversations last week with two different people that made me think about this:
Tim asked me who (American) was composing modern classical music and in all honesty I couldn’t think of anyone really since Aaron Copeland. Sure there are people doing it but they are doing it to underscore the latest bit of mindless entertainment coming out of Hollywood. Would anyone even listen to a modern classical composition anymore?
That brought me to confab number two:
I was asked What is the great American Novel? I asked Tim what he thought, ditto Frank, I even asked a stripper named Autumn, we all agreed without even knowing what the others thought, everyone said right off the bat “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Nobody even had to think about it, though there are many American Classics, arguably The Grapes of Wrath, Moby Dick, The Old Man and the Sea, The Great Gatsby all have a place there as do many others.
But what about lately? Who is writing literature these days? Sure lots of people are writing but like Hollywood it’s mostly vacuous, mindless entertainment. Who is writing anything in the last twenty years that will survive as “classic literature”? Thomas Pynchon? I doubt it, mindless, stream of consciousness isn’t classic. Mario Puzo? “The Godfather” could hold up but that was written 40 years ago. Take a real classic like Huckleberry Finn, or Moby Dick they can be read and enjoyed by all ages, the older you get you read it again and you find meaning that you never saw when you read it as a child, A classic grows with you.
What does this have to do with porn you ask? Absofuckinglutely nothing, but still it’s on my mind.
3 Responses
It scares me to think about it.
My attitude today is – If I cann’t jump out of it, jump on it, eat it or fuck it… Hell with it.
Barry Hannah! Barry Hannah is writing our modern classics. You just never know they’re classics until you can look back on them. Now Mike, am I going to have to mail you the book or are you going to take some intiative? It’s called “Yonder Stands Your Orphan”. It’s about fishing….
It’s a shame that artistry and ability to promote go hand in hand these days. I’ve seen many a quality project never get off the ground because the principle author or director was foreseen as not being a good promoter.