Tag: Meme

This month’s question from The Classics Club is a great one! I’ve struggled with many of the other questions and this one wasn’t any different. I loved the reflection required and as with the other questions asked so far, I’ve looked outside of what I’ve read for the club to find an answer, but perhaps not the answer. This month the moderators have asked us

What is your favorite “classic” literary period and why?

For me it’s hard to explain as geography/location/setting plays a bigger role in books for me than time period, but I realized that a lot of the books I thoroughly enjoy that qualify as classics are from the mid 1900s, but not the standard books. I was thinking along the lines of Bastard Out of Carolina, The Color Purple, To Kill A Mockingbird and anything by Carson McCullers and Truman Capote.

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Fair warning: 1) This isn’t meant to be offensive or dismissive; 2) I got distracted and went off on a tangent; 3) This is probably not the most well thought out post I’ve ever written; and 4) I think these types of dialogue building questions are important and as I mention near the end, this is just a gut response.

“Dead white guys” are all too often the focus when it comes to discussions of the Western Canon. We’d love to see members highlight classic works or authors that are overlooked in the canon that deserve recognition. Pick one/or more and tell us how their work resonates for our century and/or for you. As always, you determine what is a “classic” in your point of view, including works from 2000+, and works from anywhere in the world. // Or, if you have trouble thinking of an author/work to highlight, you could simply discuss the topic itself: What is “The Western Canon” — have you thought about who/what determines which works are recognized from human history?”

As someone who is pale (white), male (born), and will one day be stale (old) not to mention western (American), I’m not sure how to think about this question. I do completely understand the necessity of asking the question and the vital importance of broadening the definition of classics, but for some reason the way the question is phrased it got under my pale skin. 😉

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As with my other monthly posts I’ve taken a two (almost three) month hiatus from participating. However, I figured a new year, a new time to try again!

For January the hosts of the Classics Club have chosen another user submitted question:

“Which character from classic literature is most important or influential to you and why? Or which character do you most despise and why?”

Now once again I have to ask why didn’t they chose an easier question! Even if I limit myself solely to those Classics on my list, or even more so those I’ve read only since starting the project I’m still hard pressed to narrow down my choice.

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