Fun Stuff > ENJOY
Memorable Authors
Wayfaring Stranger:
I've been thinking some lately about how modern literature will be viewed a long way down the road. When I consider authors who have retained significant notoriety and relevance over hundreds to even a thousand years and more, it makes me wonder which (if any) current works will win the same sort of longevity. I know many early-to-mid 20th century authors have already pretty much cemented their places in history for a long time, but I'm talking about books from the '70s onward. Who do you think will be remembered a hundred years down the road or more?
Will people like Dan Brown and other adventure writers be remembered in the same kind of way Alexandre Dumas or Rafael Sabatini are? Will modern romance writers gain any sort of status along the lines of Jane Austen?
Anyway, I'd like to hear your opinions on the subject.
I think some candidates for long-lived success include: Chaim Potok, Haruki Murakami, Myla Goldberg, Richard Russo, J.K. Rowling, Luis Alberto Urrea, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Stephen King, and maybe some like John Patterson, John Grisham, and even Danielle Steele.
Joseph:
I'd add to that list John Updike, Don DeLillo, Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Philip Roth, and I imagine Cormac McCarthy. I'd like to hope that Carol Shields, Alice Munro, Nicholson Baker, and Colson Whitehead will surive as well. I'll be trumpeting them, at the very least.
I don't imagine many of the thriller writers will really survive. Most of their sales tend to come right when the book comes out, and they aren't books that I could see becoming part of any sort of cannon.
Wayfaring Stranger:
All good calls.
TheFuriousWombat:
I wouldn't be surprised to see Pynchon and Vonnegut sticking it out in the future. They may have something of a cult following but they are undeniably brilliant authors, often giving insight (albeit sometimes obliquely and sometimes rather satirically) on many cultural spheres. I also think Kundera aught to be on this list. I certainly second Garcia Marquez, McCarthy, DeLillo and several others already mentioned. The only one I have trouble with is Grishman. I find his longevity fairly doubtful.
Scandanavian War Machine:
I'm gonna agree with you guys on Stephan King and Cormac McCarthy. Most of the others I haven't heard of.
Also; what about Hunter S. Thompson? I'm pretty sure Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas will be used in the far future as an example to warn students against the dangers of excess and to demonstrate how "primitive" we were were back in the 20th century.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
Go to full version