Boing Boing posted this gem yesterday: "The Wire" as a Dickens serial. The site itself has been wanged so give it some time before it’s back up.
This got me thinking. The Wire may be one of the best television shows in the last 10 years, but does it really compare to the likes of GREAT LITERATURE (!1!)? (Imagine the words great literature being spoken by an old professor in a plaid smoking jacket who’s had too many shots of whiskey.) Why yes, it does. You see, Charles Dickens wrote his serials to be consumed like we watch television. They were episodic, were published on specific dates, and people loved them. Dickens didn’t write for a highbrow audience he wrote for the common worker. The only reason his work is highbrow today is because our language usage has changed, and professors have decided that they are some sort of untouchable great works of fiction. I have a feeling 25 years from now The Wire will be discussed in such tones. Smile when you see it. Remind the students taking the class that it was once a popular television show.
I suppose the point of this post is to get some of you interested in reading Dickens. Here’s a suggestion. Don’t try to read it all at once. Read a chapter a week. Let the book simmer for a while. Remember, that’s how the author and most people read him when it was originally published. The vast majority of DIckens’ work is in the public domain so you can download them on Google books, pick them up at the library, and I believe most of them are free though devices like the Kindle and the Nook.
This got me thinking. The Wire may be one of the best television shows in the last 10 years, but does it really compare to the likes of GREAT LITERATURE (!1!)? (Imagine the words great literature being spoken by an old professor in a plaid smoking jacket who’s had too many shots of whiskey.) Why yes, it does. You see, Charles Dickens wrote his serials to be consumed like we watch television. They were episodic, were published on specific dates, and people loved them. Dickens didn’t write for a highbrow audience he wrote for the common worker. The only reason his work is highbrow today is because our language usage has changed, and professors have decided that they are some sort of untouchable great works of fiction. I have a feeling 25 years from now The Wire will be discussed in such tones. Smile when you see it. Remind the students taking the class that it was once a popular television show.
I suppose the point of this post is to get some of you interested in reading Dickens. Here’s a suggestion. Don’t try to read it all at once. Read a chapter a week. Let the book simmer for a while. Remember, that’s how the author and most people read him when it was originally published. The vast majority of DIckens’ work is in the public domain so you can download them on Google books, pick them up at the library, and I believe most of them are free though devices like the Kindle and the Nook.
This is my favorite yet and you've actually convinced me to watch 'The Wire'.
ReplyDelete