What Makes Literature "Good"?

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:56am

I finished watching Sense and Sensibility. How can you critique it as an example of good literature from a movie? Yet, another one of my brain farts.

By the way, do you think it is good literature?

[Unknown User]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 12:59am

Why are you analyzing it as a literary piece from watching the film?

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:00am

In my opinion, good literature is a story that has a hidden meaning underneath the service. For example, Huck Finn might be a fun adventure story.......but there is an underlying message about equality and acceptance. Also, it can not be written by a hack writer (Anne Rice, Stephen King, etc.). It also has to challenge the mind and make you think instead of just reading it and putting down and saying, "that was a good book, what do I want for supper."

[SMichaelK]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:01am

I don't feel its great, its good, but jane austin tends to get over rated. Forever was a good book, wicked (and I know I'm gonna hear it) was a good book. In my opinion a good book is something that makes you question your values. Sense and Sensability just makes me glad I'm not an uptight English aristocrat. It is hard to critique on movie, or musical for that matter. About the only book that I know translated well was the Green Mile.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:02am

Wonder Boys also translated very well to film

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:02am

Because, our school told us to watch the film and critique it as an example of good literature.

I tend to overthink, sometimes...ugh, and I just want to go to bed.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:03am

ok, that is stupid on your schools part. You can't critique literature from a movie because there are always parts taken out of the movie that is in the book and the whole "voice" is gone. I hate schools. These are the same people who read Shakespeare sonnets and think they are all towards a woman.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:05am

I hate school in general.
Right now, I am desparate and writing whatever comes to mind.
This is what I get for procrastinating.

Updated On: 9/1/04 at 01:05 AM

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:07am

you should write "It was good but it would have been better for the assignment if we read the book instead since what you asked us to do is completely stupid." I hate teachers that don't do their jobs right.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:09am

I'd rather slap the teachers in the face for making us do this, period.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:10am

just throw the book in her face (it is a pretty big book so it will hurt) and say this is a book.......that is a movie........GET IT??????!!!!!?????

Updated On: 9/1/04 at 01:10 AM

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:17am

Seriously though, I am desparate so I am writing any babble that comes to mind. I need sleep.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:22am

I'm always going to pick the book over the movie, that's just how I am. I like to decide what things looked like in my head rather than on a screen.

I think "Good" literature is anything which has a theme or message that can hold up for all times. That's why I think older books are considered "Good" literature more often than contemporary books. They haven't yet proved their themes to be universal and long standing.

[BroadwayMonkey]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:27am

A good book is when I wish I was friends with the characters because I connect with them so much.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:30am

what is your favorite literature book (not popular novels like Wicked and whatnot.....I mean literature).

Mine is SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut, HUCK FINN, and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD, and PARADISE LOST. Great stuff.

[BroadwayMonkey]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:35am

To Kill a Mockingbird, House on Mango Street, Memoirs of a Geisha, Little Big Man (only halfway through, but it's totally adorable) and......


Bridget Jone's Diary. Sorry, I just had to throw it in there.

[bythesword84]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:37am

"The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo are two of my personal favorites.

Although it isn't considered a classic I think SE Hinton's "The Outsiders" is a fantastic book as well even though its geared towards teens.

Other ones I've always been partial to are "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn," "A Tale of Two Cities," "Madame Bovary," and "All Quiet on the Western Front"

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:38am

I have never read DORIAN GRAY but the movie was spectacular. I have been meaning to read it but always forgetting about it when I go to the library.

[BroadwayMonkey]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:39am

Oooh...The Ousider's is really good!

[bythesword84]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:51am

I love The Outsiders, one of the few books whose movie does it justice, I think.

As for Dorian Gray, its relatively short and it's not a difficult read. Its definitely worth picking up, I loved it. I've never seen the movie though.

[spiderdj82]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 1:58am

Angela Lansbury is HOT in that movie and she sings which made me drool. lol. And yes, I need to read it.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 2:00am

Well I finished my essay and it is THE BIGGEST PIECE OF CRAP. I really don't care at this point, I'm tired. Hopefully the other two essays will make up for it.

[Ebonic_Singer]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 2:25am

Everyone has their own idea of what makes something good literature. There is not set standard--I guess the same is for theatre but I beleive there's a little bit more of a standard in theatre.

[millie_dillmount]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 3:06am

Eh, looks like I'm going to have to pull an all-nighter.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 9/1/04 at 5:34pm

Because, our school told us to watch the film and critique it as an example of good literature.

As an English major, I felt like I was being slapped and spit in the face when I was reading that. Your teacher sounds like a hack. There are great film adaptations of books, sure, but then they become examples of good cinema, not literature.

To answer your original question: "good" is, of course, subjective, and it's subjective to critical theory at the time. What really makes a text "good literature" is if enough reputable literary critics argue that the work is indeed laudable. This is done through essays that examine:
a) the complexity of the text (patterns, subtleties, craftsmanship, etc.)
b) both how the text reflects the tastes and sensibilities of its time and how the text influences future literary works.
c) how the text can be a continual source of research and discovery.

Critical theory and approach changes constantly, though, so works that were once considered "trashy" may be put on a pedestal in the next generation. For centuries, King Lear was considered awful because of its unrelenting ending (a famous Victorian director even changed the ending so that Cordelia lives!), but today it's considered one of Shakespeare's greatest plays, and its ending one of the most potent in all the dramatic canon.

Personally, if you ask me what good literature is, I would say that a) it is something with underlying themes that are implicitly (rather than explicitly) stated, and b) that it offers itself up for study through the work's complexities and ambiguities.