Khusbu Patel: "Dear Bridget Smith: The Decline of the Classic"

The Decline of the Classic

By

Khusbu Patel

“A classic is something everybody wants to have read, but no one wants to read.” –Mark Twain

Yes, you’ve probably heard this quote one too many times, but that’s because it’s the cold hard truth. The majority of young adult readers don’t discover speculative fiction through the works of Asimov, Zelazny, or the other greats anymore. Even some avid genre readers struggle to truly immerse themselves in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, and that’s one of the few classics that still remains popular today (thanks to the success of its film adaptations). But why aren’t these beloved novels still trendy? It’s not that these classics are badly written or inaccessible. They’re just not as relevant to young adults compared to contemporary speculative fiction.

            This irrelevancy is a consequence of several factors, one of which is the rapid rate at which technology has developed in the last century. J. R. R. Tolkien published LOtR in the fifties. Since then, we’ve seen the development and commercialization of computers, audio players, DVDs, and cell phones – think about that for a second. James Gunn defines science fiction and fantasy, two major components of speculative fiction, as fiction where “the fictional world represented is… the fantastic world of unfamiliar events or developments”. This rather meticulous definition does not deny that the present world could serve as the setting for a novel written during the mid-twentieth century – after all, many of the technological advancements in the past few decades have dramatically altered the world we live in. Due to the limitations of technology in the past, older works can easily feel outdated. It’s easier for a modern reader to write off a story as lacking imaginativeness since we observe innovations daily. Fantasy needs to be creative for readers to truly experience recovery, escape, and consolation (Tolkien’s three key aspects of fantastical stories), so that is certainly a drawback. It also doesn’t help when a modern-day invention, like the cell phone, could’ve resolved the main conflict in about two minutes.

            Of course, these are reasons that account for the dismissal of speculative fiction by anyone young. For genre readers, there is more than a mere disconnect in technology. Due to the recent popularization of “geek culture”, more speculative fiction is being released now than ever before. With this increase of content comes an inevitable overlap in ideas. Think about it – how many times have you started a new book and quickly realized you’ve already read the same story ten times before? This is not a new problem; people like Brandon Sanderson have criticized Tolkien for “Tolkienizing” fantasy, essentially stifling creativity in fantasy for fifty years. However, it is much more noticeable now; speculative fiction is nearly synonymous with popular culture today. We live in a world where teens encouraged to join a “fandom” – and several thousand teenagers congregating in digital space spells extreme criticism of speculative fiction works. They’re likely to dismiss generic, derivative works, even if they’re older and not actually derivative. Back then, the target audience for SF was considerably smaller, so there wasn’t nearly as much pressure to produce innovative literature. Now, it’s not uncommon for authors to converse about their work on Twitter with fans. These interactions are tremendously rewarding, as it allows for fans to express their approval and encourages the author to produce more material. When something original (e.g. the Inkheart trilogy) is released, people voice their opinions. Of the short stories that we read in class, the ones featuring some sort of twist – the cannibalistic father in “The Witch of Duva”, the self-aware parody of fantasy in Gaiman’s “Forbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves…”, and the critical aliens in Terry Bisson's "They're Made Out of Meat" are a few standouts – were my favorites.

            That isn’t to say there aren’t aspects of classic speculative fiction that we enjoy today. As aforementioned, there are still many classic SF novels, like Lord of the Rings, that transcend time. Although Tolkien may have homogenized fantasy, Joshua Wood argues that he created a common “language” for fantasy, and I agree. New stories that draw a little from the classics can instill a sense of nostalgia for young genre readers, and the classics fused fundamental themes to their genres – fantasy continues to stress belief, and actions are always seen as consequential in science fiction. However, I think it’s fair to ease away from the classics – not so much that we forget them completely, but enough to properly appreciate contemporary material.