Essay - Classic Literature for A New Generation When One Watches 'Rambo:...

Classic Literature for a New Generation

When one watches "Rambo: First Blood Part II" are we actually watching a contemporary version of the Iliad about the ferocity ***** Achilles on and off ***** battleground? When ***** watch Francis Ford Coppola's "Godfather" trilogy, are we really watching Aeschylus's Oresteia *****? Is today's "Jerry Springer" yesterday's Euripides' Hippolytus? Is Rodney Dangerfield's "Back to School" really Aristophanes's The Clouds? Could flicking through the pages of Playboy be tantamount to listening to Pla*****'s Symposium, a discourse on sex and love, or reading Castiglione's Renaissance courtesy novel The Book of the Courtier? (Spectrum, Australia, 1)

Richard Keller Simon, in his book Trash Culture advocates ***** simultaneous study of classic literature through its traditional forms and contemporary interpretation, highlighting the importance of promoting popular culture in conjunction with ***** literature in order to comprehend ***** crucial perspective in which the *****s materialize. (R. K. Simon, California, 3-5) In reject*****g Stallone's interpretation ***** condensation ***** ***** Iliad as not having the ability to convey any of ***** inherent messages of its classic counterpart, we deny ***** culture as a possibly influenti*****l schooling device. (*****, Australia, 1)

There are many proponents of Simon's assertion, literary enthusiasts who see the ********** of studying literature in pairs - the ***** as well as the contemporary way. Leslie Fiedler, ***** his book What Was Literature?, stated that ***** examination of the art ***** (Joyce, James, Edith Whar*****n) is an passe exercise; ***** our approach is flawed if we cannot cater to the detective novel, the pornographic fancy, the comic strip. (A. Burgess, New York, 1) Marshall McLuhan placed great importance on the delivery of the *****mes inherent in novels. The fundamental idea behind ***** book The Medium is the Massage is that ***** message is largely influenced by the method of *****.... If the substance ***** destroyed by the medium, "what" we say is not significant - *****ly "how" we opt to convey that message. *****'s conviction in hi-tech determinism is apparent by h***** *****ing, "we shape ***** tools and they in turn ***** us." (http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/mcluhan.html)

However there are also ***** opponents to Simon's radicalism. Neil Postman disputed that *****day's medium *****ten undercuts the impact of the traditional works and its incorporation in the educational system should ***** be encouraged. "[T]elevision's conversations promote *****coherence and triviality... ***** that television speaks in only one persistent voice - the voice of entertainment.... To enter the great ***** conversation, one *****merican cultural institution after ano*****r is learning to speak its terms. Telev*****ion, in other words, is transforming our culture in***** one vast *****na for showb**********ess. It ***** entirely possible, ***** course, that in the end we shall find ***** delightful, and decide we like it just fine." (N. *****, US, 64-82)

Alvin *****ernan ***** his book The Death of ***** advocated similar views to Postman. "In the electronic age, *****s, words and ***** are not likely ***** remain sufficiently authoritative ***** central to knowledge to ********** literature.... At the deepest level the worldview of