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Just like Joyce's Ulysses, Dostoevsky's work, etc. those all are books that some people consider hugely important, yet because of their difficulty, they won't t
by BossingAround 8y ago
Just like Joyce's Ulysses, Dostoevsky's work, etc. those all are books that some people consider hugely important, yet because of their difficulty, they won't touch lives of many. Even students of literature often don't understand these works.
And so, I am sceptical when they get pronounced as extremely important. 'Important to whom?' seems to be the crucial question...
- madacoo 8y agoI'd argue that the importance of a literary work does not end at the reader. If the work changes the reader's world view and changes their behaviour, then it could in turn effect the way they interact with others. Just being in the same room as someone who has understood Dante's Inferno, for example, might well have effects that alter the course of your life. Proving this would be another thing entirely, however.
- bradleyjg 8y agoOne of the best classes I ever took in my life anywhere was a course in college on Dante. It wasn't so much that I was inspired by Dante as I was by the professor. He had an absolutely magical obsession with the Divine Comedy. That level of articulate enthusiasm for anything at all is something I've rarely come across in adult life.
- goto11 8y agoIn literature studies, "important" usually means how many other works have been influenced by a work.
- mikorym 8y agoProbably true, but this also means that you need to find the source. And this is where debate occurs. In this same way Enrique Iglesias would be called "extremely important" by naive musical literaries, Bloodhound Gang would be called "extremely important" by competent scholars; and finally, Pet Shop boys would casually be mentioned as "influential" by Yoda-level master scholars.
- arethuza 8y agoExactly, His Dark Materials is mentioned in the article and is hugely popular.
- azangru 8y agoI wonder why they don't use the word "influential" then, if that's what they mean. To me, the word important has a distinct prescriptive ring to it. As in "this book is important, therefore you should go read it". The word imfluential is more descriptive and does not have such connotations.
- goto11 8y agoThat is what the word means. Important: 1.2 (of an artist or artistic work) significantly original and influential. https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/important https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/important
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- keiferski 8y agoWhy is this the top comment? What value does it add? This is almost a textbook case of “the middlebrow dismissal”. Paradise Lost is one of the single most influential and brilliant pieces of literature in the history of the English language.
- magic-chicken 8y agoHe asked : why is it important ? You answered : because it is important. His comment has value because he's questionning an ill defined 'authority'. You accused him of a commiting a logical fallacy while committing one yourself. I learned more by reading the answers to his question than by reading your comment.
- keiferski 8y agoTo quote Wikipedia, "Paradise Lost has had a profound impact on writers, artists and illustrators, and, in the twentieth century, filmmakers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_in_popular_culture https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost_in_popular_cultu... I'm sorry, but the idea that a single paragraph HN comment is some kind of deep philosophical point about the nature of authority is absurd. It was a glib dismissive comment, skeptical not for any well-thought out reason, but simply because they personally didn't understand it. I don't know how precisely I'd define anti-intellectualism, but that comes pretty close.
- magic-chicken 8y agoThis quote is gold, and I think this is the best answer you could have come with in the first place.
- robin_reala 8y agoDostoevsky is hardly difficult in the way that Joyce is. I mean, yes, there’s lots of layers to uncover, but he’s downright comedic when the situation calls of it (e.g. Mitya’s carousing and subsequent arrest in Karamazov is a fine piece of comedy writing and extremely accessible, regardless of the complexity of his motives).
- graeme 8y agoIndeed. I couldn't get more than a few pages into Joyce, but Dostoyevsky's works are a joy. Very relateable human drama. You can enjoy it even on superficial levels, and catch more later on a reread.
- werber 8y agoI hated Milton before re-reading Paradise Lost while taking a Milton lecture alongside an Early American Lit course in undergrad. He had a huge influence on Phillis Wheatley writing style and her work and legacy was awe inspiring to me. His work only became important to me once I viewed it through that context. I think a lot of classic works can become important on a personal level when you can see the threads from the past woven into your contemporary interests.
- dagw 8y agoImportant to whom? Important in the sense that they greatly inspired people to go on and create other works that would go on to touch many lives.
- SolaceQuantum 8y agoMilton's Paradise Lost changed centuries of how poetry is considered and continues to strongly influence modern literature today. It's one of the great pieces of work in the English language and themes introduced in this work have impact on modern English media (if not international media). This would be like calling Shakespeare's importance into question. Milton and Shakespeare touch the lives of anyone who experiences English language and media written in English language. Whether or not this is understood is another question entirely.
- gumby 8y ago> This would be like calling Shakespeare's importance into question. Reminds me of one of my favorite New Yorker cartoons: two people walking out of a theatre showing a Shakespeare play, one saying to the other, "I don't know what the big deal is. It was just one cliché after another." Once something is so deeply embedded into the fabric of a culture, it becomes the equivalent of "do fish know they are in water?"
- Lavery 8y agoYou're missing the point in a way that brings to mind a great Brian Eno quote. "The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band".
- calebm 8y agoThe best art is more like a laser beam than a flood light. It doesn't hit everyone, but those it hits, it burns.
- pure_ambition 8y agoAlso consider that it is important to the people who have read them. Many people claim that reading Dostoevsky changed their lives, gave them much more purpose, and helped them define who they are and want to be. Great literature helps you understand the world, and yourself. It helps peel back that onion.
- defen 8y ago> 'Important to whom?' seems to be the crucial question... One example: It was important to Melville - we actually have his copy of Milton's poetical works (including Paradise Lost) with his notes, underlines, etc that was purchased in 1849. Work on Moby Dick started in February 1850, and Satan was obviously a very strong influence on Captain Ahab. http://melvillesmarginalia.org/Note.aspx?id=107 http://melvillesmarginalia.org/Note.aspx?id=107 https://www.amazon.com/Melville-Milton-Melvilles-Annotations-Renaissance/dp/0820703524/ref=sr_1_2 https://www.amazon.com/Melville-Milton-Melvilles-Annotations...
- lurquer 8y agoJoyce is intentionally written to be difficult. Never understood what all the fuss was about. I enjoy Paradise Lost because it is cinematic. It may be just me, but it seems like an epic sci-fi space opera. For any lurkers who haven't read it (or recall being miserable being forced to read sections of it in school) I'd highly recommend it. Once you get past the arachaic language and odd sentence structure (it is a poem, after all) you're left with one of the wildest, suspenseful, horrific, adventure stories ever written.