Mia Narciso: Classic Literature

I'm currently sitting in my Global Literature to 1500 course. Not sure what the guidelines for writing these posts are but we're just going to go for it. First of all, if I could drop this class I would, second of all (and perhaps more importantly) it's really making me think about our conversations about the classics and the survival of classical literature.

Do certain works gain more glory because they're old? Okay, yes, there is something interesting about The Iliad, and if I wasn't reading it for a class maybe I'd enjoy it more. I genuinely like stories about the Ancient Greeks and mythology because I had a huge Percy Jackson phase in middle school that I never really outgrew completely. But, we also place more value on some literature because it's a very direct window to the past. Maybe I'm just bitter because I'm incredibly unwilling to be here (I just glanced over to see what Tess is doing, and she too, is writing this post right now. Hi Tess).

It's interesting that we place so much value on "classic" literature and not so much on contemporary works, as least in an academic setting; I've read The Odyssey twice, Hamlet at least three or four times, and so on and so forth. I guess the point that I'm trying to make is that while they're important, they've been done before. As you change and grow, the way you view texts will do the same, but it can still feel pretty repetitive regardless. I've read 17th and 18th century literature about werewolves and manuals on how to be a "proper" woman which were just as compelling to me as Shakespeare (shout out to Professor Leslie, I love every class I've taken with her).

I guess part of the reason too is that as a teacher you need to read the book, process it, and then make a lesson plan out of it that's somewhat related to the curriculum. I'm also now wondering lucrative the classical literature publishing business is; how often are people buying these books? There must be so many copies lying around somewhere in the world.

I think I'm rambling and this post is becoming less and less related to class so I'm gonna stop here. This was very stream-of-conscious-in-class-not-paying-attention-but-kind-of? writing, I hope it made some sense.