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Apples to Oranges

So last night my son asked me to read to him because he has pinkeye and really isn't willing to have his eyes open for any length of time unless he absolutely has to. His current book is one of the Hardy Boys' mysteries.

As I'm reading along, my mouth is saying the words, but my head is thinking, "Yikes! Dated!" It made me laugh because my best friend in high school and I used to joke about our "Nancy Drew words": things like sedan, pocketbook, davenport, slacks. AND THERE THEY WERE! Right before my very eyes!

And it got me thinking about the difference between classic literature and dated literature. What makes a book like I Capture the Castle a beautiful, classic book, when Hardy Boys, a poor stepchild, is the object of lexicon jokes?

Well, ok, it's not really a fair comparison.

Still, it's relevant to me as a writer. I want my scribblings to be classic in fifty years, not dated. Something to ponder.

A small FYI...you CAN BUY a castle. I looked at several online yesterday as a way to extend my fictional dream. I, too, could be a destitute writer living in a castle.

Comments

  1. Ginger JohnsonApril 30, 2009 at 8:52 PM

    More words discovered tonight: dungarees and jalopy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. karenMay 2, 2009 at 11:43 PM

    I have to read this book! Maybe you were irked with your sister when you read it the first time and therefore disinclined to like her suggestion?

    ReplyDelete
  3. DocTexMay 7, 2009 at 5:38 PM

    Who says the Hardy Boys aren't classic?! Actually, beginning in 1959, they had to go back and update a bunch of the old ones because they were dated then, the earliest having been written in 1927. (They also updated some of the Nancy Drews.) Some were almost completely rewritten.

    ReplyDelete

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