What Makes a Classic?
Consider art, literature or even your favorite memory and you’ll find some things are classic. The Mona Lisa. Moby Dick. The Hot Toddy-infused holiday caroling your Uncle Daniel embarks upon after he leaves your mother’s table with your cousins in tow.
The Ford Mustang is a classic. So are the soulful, velvety tunes of Motown and the notion that Freudian interpretation lurks inside your sleep. Queen Elizabeth, Frank Gehry, black silk and pearls, Gershwin, Harry Potter, ice cream, The Beatles, blue jeans—add them to the list. Yet all are modern examples and the notion of classic reaches across the whole of civilization to include Greek philosophy, Arabic mathematics and the Chinese ships that might have discovered the New World if not for the infighting among the country’s royals. The invention of pasta, van Gogh, Mozart, diamond rings to mark a betrothal, the handshake, Gothic cathedrals, Machiavelli and Shakespeare also deserve a place on the list.
If you think about it, we tout the word when referring to goods, music or art enjoyed by millions. Or when speaking of emotions we’ve all experienced or dreams, both collective and personal, to which we all aspire. If you stand in Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia with a sense of the divine suffusing your bones, you are within the grip of a classic moment in the highest sense, an awestruck rapture shared by the thousands who tread the marbled aisles in the centuries prior to your arrival.
But I’m a novelist, which narrows my purpose if not my interest. How do I take the silver-threaded gossamer of classic and apply it to my art?
I strive to create characters inside stories that stir your deepest emotions and portray the similarities hidden behind humanity’s alleged differences. Think of the fast-paced dialogue as a magician’s sleight of hand employed to encourage you to laugh before a secret is revealed and the narrative pace slows with a deepening characterization that compels you to tears. Do you wonder about a character’s name? So do I, which is why I can spend weeks agonizing before making the perfect choice, the definitive choice sure to depict the story arc.
Yet writers are also readers. I savor the emotional roller coaster when I pick up Molly Greene’s Mark of the Loon, a celebration of friendship among women deliciously wrapped in a mystery. Terri Long’s In Leah’s Wake draws me to the frightening divide that can separate a mother from her reckless daughter. Rachel Thompson’s A Walk in the Snark is a hilarious tribute to men and the women who put up with them. Classics, all.
What makes a book a classic for you?
Join us on January 3 – 7, 2013 to share the books on your Classic Reads list. We want to hear about your favorite stories, authors and books – whether they’re old favorites, new fiction, controversial or simply heartwarming. What elements catapult a book from a good read to a must read for you?
Don’t miss this fabulous opportunity to share your favorite reads and hear about more. If you write a post featuring the ClassicReads banner you’re automatically entered in a $200 Amazon/B&N gift card drawing. Additional prizes are available for helping spread the word via Twitter, Pinterest, etc. Here’s how to take part:
1. Visit Terri Long’s website and complete the Classic Reads Blog Hop sign up form. http://terriglong.com/blog/classic-reads-blog-hop-2013
2. If you’d like, write your post or choose another way to spread the word.
3. Several days prior to the event, we’ll send an email with graphics and a linky code to directly link all participating posts.
4. If you’ve written a post, schedule it to go live at 12:01 EST any day from January 3rd to 7th and respond to our email with your direct post URL. Your post URL will be added to our linky and used to validate your Rafflecopter entry.
5. For EXTRA entries and chances to win, please promote one or more of the sponsoring hosts’ books at the bottom of your post by adding our book cover & synopsis. All this information will be sent to you by December 24, 2012.
6. Don’t forget to enter the prize draw via Rafflecopter!
7. Spread the love January 3-7 – and learn about everyone’s own classic reads – by visiting and commenting on as many hop participant’s posts as you’d like.
8. Follow #NewClassicReads on Twitter for updates, news and discussion throughout November and December.
