# What would happen if all-time classics were written now?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-all-time-classics-were-written-now/651233>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [February 24, 2013, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-all-time-classics-were-written-now/651233 "2013-02-24T07:20:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-all-time-classics-were-written-now/651233/21 "2013-02-27T22:08:52Z")

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Hamlet is not a contemporary story - the OP does not contemplate rewriting the classics for our time merely that they never existed before.

The Lion in Winter is a latter 20th century work about Henry II. It is praised for its dialogue, which was not written in contemporary style.

So too the newly issued Hamletwould be considered a period piece.

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**Author:** ![Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/intergalactic_gladiator/32/112_2.png) [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Intergalactic_Gladiator)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-all-time-classics-were-written-now/651233/22 "2013-02-27T22:16:07Z")

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_The Breakfast Club_ would be a lot different if it was made today.

[![](https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7077559296/h2B00A7DE/) ](https://i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7077559296/h2B00A7DE/)

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**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\
**Post date:** [February 27, 2013, 11:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-would-happen-if-all-time-classics-were-written-now/651233/23 "2013-02-27T23:08:09Z")

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> [@Kepler1571](#):
>
> Maybe not. In literary history there are fecund periods and desert periods, and this sure looks like a desert period. Is there even one transcendent author in the last hundred years? Tolstoy died in 1910. The next one down the list is Joyce, and that’s a long, long fall.

Of course there have been transcendent authors in the last 100 years. Nabokov, to name just one.

Then again, I don’t agree that the fall from Tolstoy to Joyce is nearly as immense as you claim.

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