Writingbolt's Creation

*****

Am I alone in the belief that books have a limited period in which they remain useful and easily read? Even without altering languages…at least, without leaving what may be called English…there seems to be a rate of decay which increases with age, just as decay works on the human body.

What am I hammering at…and why do I suddenly sound strange to myself, using unfamiliar words?

Back in high school, I was exposed to and forced to read books by deceased authors of European origins that were heralded as great and vital stories. Only one or two were fairly easy to digest. A third, A Tale of Two Cities, was more than a trial; yet, from the way my English teacher spoke of it, the story DID grow on me. As I age, I begin to see similar threads in the world around me and in my own life; and such thoughts only increase my dismay. But, after so much talk about Shakespeare and Dickens and Poe, I couldn’t take any more. I turned my back on “required reading” as soon as I could and “slacked off” to focus on art and writing my own dreadful poems and stories.

Many years later, I find myself turning to reading books as a means of deflecting panic and despair. I’ve even dared to try an older book, one by H. G. Wells (not about a time machine). And, sadly, I am thrust back into my school days, wondering how these guys became famous authors. Digesting Wells’ choice of words, some poorly written/arranged from my perspective, is like eating really dense oatmeal without any flavor. I grasp tiny hints of different values, like separating oat flakes from mush with my tongue, but I find myself falling mentally asleep faster than I can finish a chapter.

THIS is a great work of fiction?…scandalous as it has been claimed. Reading this book feels like I’m looking at some sad excuse for pornography which was probably a brilliant fire of controversy…back in the early 1900s (if not earlier)! But, today, it’s faded, weathered, soiled and outdated without actually being that outdated. There ARE, as I said, glimmers of matters that could be related to current events and philosophies. And, there are moments in which I could find inspiration to bolster my own budding philosophies. Unfortunately, they are buried in cryptic, aged lines of code. Even the Bible makes more sense and has been translated many times. Is it possible the Bible just got more attention in terms of updating the language?…while, most likely, also altering stories to the point that any legendary tale from ancient times is now turned into a Disney-Plus showpiece.

If you are an avid reader…if you praise the writing of authors like Dickens and Wells…tell me…how DO you digest those dusty, old lines? How do you translate what has not been adequately rewritten for easy reading? And, what good comes of it? When a joke is so old that it no longer holds any tie to current events, how is it still funny? When something scandalous in its day is no longer new or even commonplace (because it’s obsolete), what value does it have?

So, what do I hope to achieve with all of this heavy thinking?

Well, if I may be so “Fabian” and bent on improving the “contemporary” world, I would say we need to radically alter the requirements of modern education. Let’s cut out the dusty old “classics” that were all the rage decades ago and give students books that still make sense in their own present-day, plain-spoken native language. It’s not like there are only five authors in the world worth dissecting…is it? I know too many are being rushed into publishing (while others probably get shunned/discouraged)…and many of the successful ones make their share of overlooked mistakes or get tiresome with their obsessive one-track-minded interests (always talking about secret agents, ex-military men, war, detectives who obsess about white wine and depressingly humble lifestyle choices, lust, etc.). But, surely, there are some that may be sifted from the lot by well-read teachers, worthy educators, which can be slotted into a modern teaching planner.

Heaven forbid, decades from now, some author’s over-produced hard-cover doorstop from 2001 is forced upon a classroom of nose-picking students with little to no interest in doing anything substantial with their lives. It can’t possibly have a positive impact on more than maybe one or two of those students, students who have a relentless interest in achieving good grades and/or actually still enjoy reading (not including myself).

Why is there so much grumbling about poorly paid teachers and students acting out in ways that can only be described as ruthless and insane? Well, I certainly cannot blame a Catcher or a Rye, nor anyone named Macbeth or Capulet. But, I wouldn’t be opposed to point a finger at a Clancy or Grisham, if, in roughly eighty years, their greatest novels were forced down the throats of the graduating class of 2100. And, if Shakespeare is STILL promoted in that distant future, I think I’d be inclined to vomit until I died.

THERE IS A LIMIT!! Let the old authors rest, already! They had their day. And, unless you have adequate educators who can provide translated texts their students can more adequately process, the aged language skills of deceased famous faces will do no good. [It’s a small blessing when someone like Dickens can have his work converted into a timeless piece of film like A Christmas Carol. Now, there’s a story that, like the book of Genesis, in the Bible, never seems to lose its full value and is worth dissecting. Yet, if I had to READ A Christmas Carol every year, instead of just watching any of the various movie incarnations it has had, I might become a bit parched or drift asleep, I suppose.]

If you were hoping for a great ending to this post, I am sorry? I cannot provide one. Forgive this humble author. I am no Dickens, Shakespeare or Wells (yet).

While I’d love to be given a measure of historical fame, I’d be a fool to think my stories, as I write them, would still be easy, enjoyable reads a century from now, no matter how prophetic they may be. [Yet, I have this unpleasant feeling some reader from the distant future might look at something I wrote and laugh in a cruel, menacing way, like any of the many jerks and bullies I’ve had to deal with in my life. That’s not exactly the kind of respect I want for my creations.]