Classical Literature
Most of you will likely recall going to your high school literature class and HATING it. Reading great works of classic literature and poetry seemed sooooo asinine. I mean, c'mon, it's the 20th century and I am a cool 17 year old why on earth would I care to read something so utterly inapplicable to my life like "A Tale of two Cities" or "Romeo and Juliet"...especially when I can hardly understand any of it! I read it and I don't get it, it's boring and my generation is crying out for something different. Perhaps today they would prefer to read the staggering wisdom found in the literature and prose of "Puff Daddy", "Snoop Doggy Dogg" or "Killer Klown Posse" (sp?), but in my age it would have been "Midnight Oil" and "U2" (a sight better no doubt...but...)
Luckily, one of the things MY literature class did for me was to teach me to actually understand, appreciate, and apply the classics to my life. Yes, maybe I did have the best high school lit teacher on earth...but he believed these great works spoke for humanity in all ages and that us modern youth needed simply to be illumined to see the wisdom therein. Surely he is right, classic works survive the test of time because humanity recognized, recognizes, and will go on recognizing the inherent value to be found in them. And indeed I can still vividly recall when I began to GET poetry and literature.
How sad that we would toss them aside in order to hear solely our own voices in the here and now. Like an insane man who plucks out his eyes and stabs his earndrums in order to be left to the wisdom he knows may be found in his own head.
I think good old tradional Orthodoxy is the same way. Her experience, her Christian story - as much as it is written and handed down to us - needs no fundamental change. On the contrary, we need to educate and illumine people to see that, like classic literature, the message IS applicable, it is relevant, and it it does "work." Ears to hear and eyes to see beyond the here and now...thats what we need.
God preserve our children from ever NOT learning classic literature in their education....and more than that, they must learn to learn it.
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ICP
BOOYA FOO!
I started enjoying the classics my Senior year of High School
Though, can't say I feel too bad about screwing that up.
;)
-Rick
The Saints? The Theotokos? Jesus Himself? Holy Tradition? The Liturgy? The Prayers? The Symbool of our Faith?
I had a fantastic Lit teacher in high school...I can honestly say his enthusiasm and love for both kids and his topic helped to change my life. I can still remember many of th poems and stories that helped me to change/reconcile my atheistic world view to the notion of love.
I suppose his faith in Christ helped too...though he did not wear it on his sleeve.
In fact, there are many people whose faith has converted and keeps converting me which I have to say even includes you.
But the bottom line is to what does our life bear witness? Perhaps many of the arguments about authority and tradition come out of the fact that those of use who pay lip service to such do not do a very good job. I know that I don't -- just get me in a traffic jam!
-Rick
Just like Rick is saying, I had an experience in High School that taught the classics as a dull requirement with heavy themes that were rather beyond me.
Now, I'm rediscovering them. And part of that is driven by more experience in life. Now, when I read Shakespeare or Tolstoy, there is real life in the page, something vital. The classical authors sometimes articulate things that I'm only dimly aware of, but recognize the instant they describe it.
Another huge factor for me has been to hear them read on tape by professional readers. Some professionals are more so than others. When they're good, it's better than a lesson.
Another factor, let's face it: we can read a classic now and kick it around without having to "write a paper."
Finally, the choice of classics in High School was pretty grim: Hemmingway and the others are rather nihilist. They don't exactly invite one to consider the mystery of life and human experience.
- Steve Knowlton
http://houseoffame.blogspot.com/2006/08/serpentes-on-shippe-spoylerez.html
Claire