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Writer and editor Home > Blogs > Brain Droppings > Archives > 2006 > April > 15 > Entry
What are today’s classics?
The Wall Street Journal isn’t just all boring business news, you know (or maybe you don’t). In recent years, the paper has vastly expanded other areas of its coverage, including into the arts, entertainment and leisure activities — and in fact, one of my favorite weekend reads every Saturday morning is the WSJ’s “Pursuits” section, which hits all those topics in a thoughtful, analytical way.
One of the best features is called “Masterpiece,” a column that rotates amongst various writers and critics that focuses on the best work in a genre or by a particular artist and really digs into why the piece in question deserves the title. They hit all kinds of bases. Today’s looked at Dashiell Hammett’s “The Glass Key,” the book that was his favorite, even above “The Maltese Falcon,” which was the one I like best and that most folks know, cuz of the Bogart movie version. Writer Tom Nolan made his case, and I’ll have to hunt that one down. A bit more Hammett on the shelf is a good thing, anyway.
In recent weeks the column has talked about Frank Lloyd Wright’s famous “Fallingwater” house in Pennsylvania, Jasper Johns’ “Flag” painting from the mid-1950s, and Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode,” which just enjoyed a 50th anniversary, I believe.
This column has gotten me thinking anew about something that comes to mind frequently in my writing and critiquing and conversation about arts and entertainment stuff: Namely, what are the masterpieces and classics of today?
There’s a lot of entertainment fodder being produced and cranked out — mountains of books, movies, TV shows, pop songs, classical compositions, poems and more, in a never-ending deluge of creativity. Sorting through them is a challenge — an exceedingly enjoyable and usually rewarding challenge, but a challenge nonetheless.
I often ask myself, “Sure, this is good. But will I still be listening to it a year from now?” or “I like this book a lot, but will I remember 20 years from now that I read it?”
So, this week on the blog we’ll be putting the question to you, dear reader/posters: What are our contemporary classics? What music, movies, TV shows and books from the last 10 years or so will stand the test of time and still be talked about, say, 50 to 100 years from now? Who’s written our “The Sun Also Rises?” Who has composed our “Swan Lake?” Who has acted our “Hamlet?” Who has produced our “Gone With the Wind?”
Just to get the conversation started, I’ll toss in “The Sopranos” as a body of work … not surprising to anybody who reads me regularly. Bookwise, I’ll suggest “Atonement” by Ian McEwan, from a couple of years ago. Moviewise, I’ll suggest “A History of Violence,” which just came out last year, and which I think will be looked at written about in film classes a long time from now.
Others? We’re taking suggestions here, kiddies…. And this can be a big, flexible list.
The floor is open.
Comments
By Zack
April 17, 2006 3:11 PM | Link to this
I’m stickin’ to movies, cuz that’s what I’m good at: THE NEW WORLD, MUNICH, GERRY, 25TH HOUR; then there’s the ones I love, and will always love, but that might not find their rightful place in history: BEFORE SUNSET, ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, ALMOST FAMOUS; sure to be the most underrated movie of my lifetime, but certainly not a full-fledged masterpiece: FREDDY GOT FINGERED