“GLAWR” OF THE PAST
In this post, I could have written lots of things about Orlando: A Biography, Virginia Woolf’s one of the most acclaimed novels. It could have been the concept of time, the gender roles, social milieu of England through ages or LGBTQ rights. However, just before starting this post, I started to read Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook and its preface, written by the author herself, prevented me to write about all these issues mentioned above. That’s why I just want to take a character out from the novel for my purpose and to write what I want to write without the plot of the novel explained or the other things which can be found in the papers about literary works.
That character is Nick Greene, who is a popular writer during Elizabethan Age, and encounters Orlando for several times in his hundreds-of-years journey. (That Nick Greene might be Robert Greene is a highly… anyway, no speculation is allowed in this paper.) Nick Greene and Orlando talk about literature and nature whenever they meet. However, there is one thing that never changes during these conversations and that is Mr. Greene’s rhapsodies for the past and his antipathy to the present works of literature. For instance, when it is Elizabethan period, the two meet and Nick Greene speaks ill of his contemporaries such as Shakespeare and Browne while talking about the writers of the Classical Period in a glowing terms. Mr. Greene’s opinions about literature startle Orlando out of his mind. We understand that Nick Greene has much respect for the past, and there is nothing wrong with that for now.
Then Orlando encounters Nick Greene in a street when it is Victorian age. Now Orlando is a woman and Mr. Greene is one of the “most influential” critics of the age. Orlando follows Mr. Greene to a restaurant where they talk about literature. This time Nick Greene speaks highly about Shakespeare, whom he once criticized for stealing from Marlowe, and about other great writers of Elizabethan age while spill out his disliking against Victorian authors, who write for pay.
Sorry Mr. Greene but we cannot tolerate this. This is always what happens in literary sphere. Some people come together to rhapsodize Homer, Shakespeare and the great writers of the past. There is nothing wrong with that, but when it comes to the modern writers and their works, they are always like “meh” or “eww”. This “attitude” prevents many people to talk or write about literature. People in the literary sphere should accept that some people might not like Shakespeare’s plays or sonnets, or that John Green’s novels might appeal to them much more than Thomas Hardy’s novels do.
This happens not only in literature, but also in music and movies. That’s why I say that feel free to explain what you like. If you think La La Land is a better romance movie than Titanic, say it and explain why you think so. Therefore this post is for confessions. Write your favorite writers, books, movies or songs. We are excited to see your answers.
