Will literature classics ever die?

[Immenseman]

As you know some of the most famous novels that are analysed in such detail now were written hundreds of years ago. Do you think such novels will ever "die out". I was speaking to a friend of mine who said "books will die within 50 years".

Personally, I don't think they ever will. People will always be willing to read them because it gives a valuable insight into society at the time as well as them often being written beautifully.

[Misawa]

I don't think they will die. Books are books. I don't think eBooks have really caught on all that much. I'd much rather own a story in the physical. They shouldn't die out and it would be a travesty if laziness got the better of art.

[Mrs.McCall]

I do agree with your friend that books in the form they are in will die out but the actual content will live on in electronic form.

You can't beat a good classic.

[Barmi]

As you know some of the most famous novels that are analysed in such detail now were written hundreds of years ago. Do you think such novels will ever "die out". I was speaking to a friend of mine who said "books will die within 50 years".

Personally, I don't think they ever will. People will always be willing to read them because it gives a valuable insight into society at the time as well as them often being written beautifully.
Think of Chaucer and other medieval literature.

[Hecktix]

Books will probably find some way of advancing in technology.
However in your title you refer to the 'classic novel' dying out.

The classic novel will never die out. Like the person above said, some medieval literature is still read today and I think the most interesting point about this is that it's still found interesting today. Some of Chaucer's work is hilarious and relates so much to modern day it's unbelievable that it was written in the medieval times - what is becoming apparent with medieval literature though is that the majority of the people simply won't read it because of the language it is written in. Chaucer is a ***** to read, but once you get past the middle english it's such fantastic content. So maybe there will be a point where nobody can be arsed to spend their time trying to translate middle english? It is possible to believe looking at the younger generations of this day - look at their attitude to Shakespeare.

I suppose referring back to the classic novel, novels such as 'Of Mice & Men', 'To Kill a Mocking Bird', 'Frankenstien', 'Wuthering Heights' etc will live on as long as the language they are written in lives on. Which lets face it, is a lot more than 50 years.
Even if children don't necessarily read the books, they will probably have heard of them come their late teens, for a start GSCE & A Level English Lit courses contain the classic novel and lets face it who doesn't know of the story of Frankenstein.. however misinterpreted it is.

I suppose eventually these novels may start to die out, but I certainly doubt it will be in the life time of anybody in existence this day.

[Rosii]

It would be a great shame if these brilliant classics die out. They are great stories and contain brilliant literature aswell as vocab. One of my favourite classics is Anne of Greengables :)


rosix