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Last night was just about perfect - ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
umbran and I went to go see the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of 'All's Well That Ends Well' with a handful of friends, and I can't imagine a better evening. The weather was gorgeous, I got to spend time hanging out and chatting with people I don't see near often enough, there was a surfeit of delicious food, the blending of social circles went off without a hitch, and the play was wonderful.
I had never seen 'All's Well That Ends Well' before, and I don't remember ever reading it, which made watching it an interesting experience - usually, when I watch Shakespeare, I've read it beforehand, and I'm familiar with the language and the story. This time I had to pay a little more attention to the exact phrasing, but it was still delightfully entertaining - and it's fun to encounter the more humorous parts for the first time as they're supposed to be seen; puns and slapstick just don't play as well on paper as they do on stage.
It did leave me wondering, though, what pieces of our current art and entertainment will still survive and be remade and replayed 400 years from now. So many of our stories are interdependent, or genre-specific, or rely on references to pop culture - will they be comprehensible to someone who didn't grow up in this culture? And even if they are comprehensible, will they still be interesting or funny?
Genre stories might survive - but then again, will they still make sense? Will the genre tropes carry down enough for them to be entertaining and comprehensible? And there are stories, both in literature and on film, that set out to Create Great Art - but then again, Great Art isn't always what survives. Shakespeare wasn't trying to write for the ages, and his stories have outlasted a lot of other stuff. On the other hand, as trite and occasionally irritating as romantic comedies are... their appeal is universal, if only because romance and comedy are things that transcend era. I don't want to believe that, far into the future, Bridget Jones' Diary and Noises Off will be studied in literature and theater classes while Unbreakable and The Matrix vanish without a blip, but something tells me that might just be the case.
On the other other hand, epics are universal, too. And superhero stories are just demigod stories with new clothes. So... who knows?
What are your picks for the stories that will survive?
umbran and I went to go see the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company's production of 'All's Well That Ends Well' with a handful of friends, and I can't imagine a better evening. The weather was gorgeous, I got to spend time hanging out and chatting with people I don't see near often enough, there was a surfeit of delicious food, the blending of social circles went off without a hitch, and the play was wonderful.I had never seen 'All's Well That Ends Well' before, and I don't remember ever reading it, which made watching it an interesting experience - usually, when I watch Shakespeare, I've read it beforehand, and I'm familiar with the language and the story. This time I had to pay a little more attention to the exact phrasing, but it was still delightfully entertaining - and it's fun to encounter the more humorous parts for the first time as they're supposed to be seen; puns and slapstick just don't play as well on paper as they do on stage.
It did leave me wondering, though, what pieces of our current art and entertainment will still survive and be remade and replayed 400 years from now. So many of our stories are interdependent, or genre-specific, or rely on references to pop culture - will they be comprehensible to someone who didn't grow up in this culture? And even if they are comprehensible, will they still be interesting or funny?
Genre stories might survive - but then again, will they still make sense? Will the genre tropes carry down enough for them to be entertaining and comprehensible? And there are stories, both in literature and on film, that set out to Create Great Art - but then again, Great Art isn't always what survives. Shakespeare wasn't trying to write for the ages, and his stories have outlasted a lot of other stuff. On the other hand, as trite and occasionally irritating as romantic comedies are... their appeal is universal, if only because romance and comedy are things that transcend era. I don't want to believe that, far into the future, Bridget Jones' Diary and Noises Off will be studied in literature and theater classes while Unbreakable and The Matrix vanish without a blip, but something tells me that might just be the case.
On the other other hand, epics are universal, too. And superhero stories are just demigod stories with new clothes. So... who knows?
What are your picks for the stories that will survive?
