What's the oldest piece of media you engage with?

Cafe Society
1

What’s the oldest piece of art, writing, film, music etc. that you actually view/read/listen to and enjoy on at least a semi-regular basis? Not just the oldest thing you’ve seen or read, but the oldest that’s a real part of your life? So for example, no cave paintings unless you’re really some kind of prehistoric art aficionado.

Shakespeare is probably mine. I usually reread at least one play a year and I return to The Tempest and Measure for Measure on the regular. (I’m also reading a translation of The Iliad but I’m not any kind of aficionado of the Greek epics or anything.)

2

Every week? The Economist. But that is probably not what you meant.
Every now and then, but again and again? Quevedo (1580 – 1645). Wikipedia writes he was a poet, and he was too, but for me he is a gifted satirist. I like his prose better than his poetry.

3

I do in fact have cave paintings (Native American, not Lascaux or Chauvet) that are in my rotation of desktop pictures, precisely because I think they’re pretty awesome. I dont write art critiques of them or anything but I enjoy seeing them when they’re on.

I listen to a lot of 16th century polyphonic choral music, we sang quite a bit in high school choir and retained a fondness for it.

I’ve reread Friedman’s Who Wrote the Bible many times and continue to study it; it itself is not by any means ancient, but it quotes extensively from the component documents that make up the Torah / Bible — the J document, P document, E document, etc. So I’m reading those as well.

4

That’s a perfectly valid answer!

5

I very much enjoy Mozart’s music. I have a recording of his Symphony No. 25 on my iPhone, and listen to it regularly – it was written in 1773, so that’s probably the oldest creation which I interact with/enjoy regularly.

I’d also mention the Bible, as I frequently deliver Scripture readings at our church’s services; those writings, of course, date back 1900+ years for the New Testament, and well over 2000 years for the Old Testament.

6

I have Van Gogh’s Cafe at Arles as the screensaver on my phone, so I look at a copy of a 150 year old painting multiple times a day.

7

Lesley Stahl. But not often.

8

Probably for a great many people here it would be the Bible (or comparable texts from other religions).

But for me nothing really comes to mind. The oldest books I regularly reread: Sherlock Holmes. The oldest movies would be screwball comedies of the 1930s-40s such as Bringing Up Baby.

9

I was going to post, but I see we already have a winner.

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(Unless I can count looking at the sun…)

10

It’s not a competition! I was just thinking about how most folks only engage with contemporary popular media, or at least with what was contemporary when they were growing up. I imagined that the demographic here would maybe have a longer cultural memory, and wanted to hear people share their interests!

11

The Straight Dope?

12

You beat me to it. This old board with all its older experts is where I often hear about things, and it works. People at work are actually suprised that I know about new stuff becasue people here bring it up and talk about it, then I go research it. It’s my secert weapon.

13

I sometimes listen to a playlist of Vivaldi concertos on my commute, so the early 1700s for music. I don’t tend to re-read books, but I have gone through the Sherlock Holmes books as well. That’s the oldest for pleasure reading. For movies / TV it would be Star Wars IV / The Three Stooges.

14

We have a wall mounted fossil in our bedroom. I can’t remember if it’s 50 or 500 million years old

15

Can’t claim an interest in classical music.

I do fairly often do a relisten to the Green Hornet radio show (with one exception, the recordings begin in 1938, so far as I’m aware), so that’s probably earliest that regularly engage with, discounting newspapers.

I do sometimes trawl through older newspapers (late 19th century and later, though not always) for housing prices and wages, but I’d just look that up in table if it more easily accessible for the areas/jobs I was interested in. Do read general articles, too, if they catch the eye.

Perry Mason is probably the oldest show I can claim to have watched for more than a casual toe-dip to see what it’s about. Used to watch Shirley Temple movies as a kid, but that’s long in the past. Read the old Nancy Drew books as a child, too. Seen some other old movies, of course, but can’t say I seek them out, in general.

I have read golden age comic books, though more for seeing the early versions than really, actively liking them, given how short they are. Though there are a few good ones (first appearance of the Joker is quite good, IMO), and Lois Lane was much cooler in the early days than the silver age.

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Oldest song in my main music collection: Whiter Shade of Pale
Book: And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie (finished reading again last week)
Movie: Born Yesterday.

17

I’ve enjoyed Tolkien’s writings on Beowulf, the Green Knight, and Kullervo.

18

Dante’s Inferno is pretty cool (although I’ve only read it in translation).

For books I’ve reread several times, I can think of some 18th and 19th century authors: Swift, Smollett, Scott, Thackeray, Trollope, Mrs. Gaskell.

In terms of art? Can’t go wrong with Hogarth!

19

Classical Music, Bach is probably the most ancient.
I read the Iliad long ago but I haven’t reread it in 30 years…

20

For values of regularly (3-4 times a year), various versions of Gilbert and Sullivan’s productions, although the actual productions and arrangements are themselves more modern, the source is not.

Shakespeare (Hamlet and Henry the 5th most commonly), probably come into the rotation at least every other year, although it’s a tossup for the later if I read it or watch the movie version which I enjoy (I dislike most filmed versions of Hamlet for various reasons).