I would also contend that contemporary jargon gives a sense of time and place to literature. I find it jarring to read historical dramas that use modern phrases and social concepts out of context for the era. Yes, I have to work a bit to translate the words into modern conception but I appreciate being transported back to another time and circumstances.
As for the effect of the internet, one can only hope that there will come a reckoning of the banality of the banal.
I'll have to pick this up. I'm currently reading Franzen's Purity and people could make a similar case that precisely because of the story arc it only makes sense inside a certain cultural and social moment. But literature I guess is not there to simply transcend us but also to ground us, to stare us in the face and give us a moment of realisation no matter how fleeting it may be. It is in this way I have always found philosophy and literature to be intertwined.
I would also contend that contemporary jargon gives a sense of time and place to literature. I find it jarring to read historical dramas that use modern phrases and social concepts out of context for the era. Yes, I have to work a bit to translate the words into modern conception but I appreciate being transported back to another time and circumstances.
As for the effect of the internet, one can only hope that there will come a reckoning of the banality of the banal.
Good point. Part of the fun in reading 19th century novels for me is learning about the “pop” culture of that time.
I'll have to pick this up. I'm currently reading Franzen's Purity and people could make a similar case that precisely because of the story arc it only makes sense inside a certain cultural and social moment. But literature I guess is not there to simply transcend us but also to ground us, to stare us in the face and give us a moment of realisation no matter how fleeting it may be. It is in this way I have always found philosophy and literature to be intertwined.