Learning From The Classics

Aren’t the classics outdated? 

We get this question a lot and it’s a good one! When we advocate for regular critical reading as one of the most important practices for writers (second only to writing itself), we often reference the classics. But the way we read and write has changed dramatically since the classics were published, so what can we really learn from works of literature that were written for an entirely different context, in a different century? 

Though the passage of time has in many ways enriched our reading of the classics, it is true that certain aspects of classical literature may not thrive on the shelves of bookstores when penned by a modern author.

The way we read has changed, a fact resulting in part from our access to more instantaneous forms of entertainment, such as television, film, streaming, and social media. Unlike authors such as Dickens, Austen, and their contemporaries, modern writers must contend with a reader’s temptation to turn to less intensive and effortless entertainment mediums; this, in turn, has facilitated a shift in the way authors structure, plot, and write their novels. 

Arguably, authors publishing in the years pre-television, as the providers of a leisure medium with far less competition than it has in the 21st century, wielded greater power over the reader. This power allowed them to take greater liberties with structure, pace, and perhaps even experimentalism, while now the cornerstone of every author’s ambition is (and seemingly must be) to write the next “page-turner”. 

Pace is king in 2021, with few modern authors having the courage or indeed the liberty to, for example, dedicate a significant portion of their text to what one might call a “lull” in the novel’s pace—something that many classical authors have been known to be indulgent with. Nor are modern writers likely to have much success with certain stylistic choices, tropes, and characterisations as classical authors have in the past. 

And yet, the mothers and fathers of literature still have a thing or two to teach us, and many of their lessons are timeless. As Italo Calvino wrote in his book Why Read the Classics?, “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” 

There is a reason the classics became classics and to ignore their success would be a mistake for aspiring writers. Not convinced? Check out our post on what we can learn about social critique from Jane Eyre.