Hello everyone. I’ve been a lowly troller for quite some time now, but I figure it’s time to get out from under the bridge and see the world. Well, more like spread my small cache of wisdom to those who aren’t as fortunate (or more, depending on how you look at it) who don’t know what I know. So, ok, here it goes…
After hearing Little Einsteins while the Little Modeler was watching the Disney channel the other morning got me thinking about classics. Who among those now classic artists ever thought they’d be famous hundreds of years later? I can’t imagine that someone who was composing music ever thought that his symphony would still be played long after his death. And what would make a young Samuel Clemens would ever think that a story about frogs would still be read so long after its initial publication?
What I really wondered is who among the current artists will be famous a hundred years from now? How about two or three hundred? Do any of our current pool of creative geniuses have the gusto to last that long? Or will they go the way of the Dodo?
So I ask the most collectively learned group of people that I can find: Who do you think will be immortalized?
I guess choosing current writers who will stand the test of time is the easiest, as “current” just really means still alive and putting out the odd book, so you can already get an idea of their relevance by looking back over their career. The academic community plays a critical role in the maintenance of a book’s longevity, I think they’re going to take real good care with Thomas Pynchon. In a hundred years time his books will be held up as classics of their age (maybe of any age) that all students of literature have to read (if people read in the future).
Rock/pop music is just impossible to speculate on with any insight, even good bands seem to be here today gone tomorrow. Its possible that a jazz situation may develop, where anything after a certain date, say 1992, is just regarded as shite and everyone listens to the old stuff. You can take the Beatles to the bank on this one, they’ve passed beyond popularity and into some kind of self-sustaining cycle of cultural relevance. Rest assured, as of November 2015, Sgt Peppers will still be boring the arse off everyone.