Writers and other artists of 20 century which in your opinion will be remembered

[dumbledore11214]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Miles" <d2dmiles at ...> wrote:
>
> Hi,
> 
> I think it's a general problem to judge a century that ended only a decade 
> ago, I agree with Shaun in that point.

Alla:

I guess you guys are convincing me on this point that it is too early to judge for  many artists of twentieth century, especially its second half, but I think we can at least see some trends for its first half.

Miles: 
> Since Alla asked not only for English or Anglo-American culture, let me 
> comment on some of the names mentioned so far from my (German) point of 
> view: 

Alla: Of course! I was not brought up in Anglo-American culture myself, I read whatever I heard about in school, but it was not humongous amount, or whatever I was interested in, so my knowledge is still quite fragmental in some areas.

Miles: 
> C.S.Lewis: I'm sorry to say that he is far, far from being as popular 
> outside US/UK. I never heard of Narnia before I joined this list. The movies 
> might make a difference, but that does not help the author.
> Tolkien: Since I do not believe in the end of "fantasy" literature in the 
> near future, Tolkien will be remembered as the father of this genre.

Alla:

You do not have to be sorry Miles :). As I told Shawn, and of course I am only talking about Chronicles of Narnia, I am incredibly not impressed by those books myself and also never ever heard of C.S.Lewis before I came to live to America. But I most definitely heard of Tolkien and for the first time read it while I was still living in Ukraine/Soviet Union in Russian translation. Funnily, translation was terrible, I found the book incredibly boring and did not finish it. I only fell in love with it when I decided to try it here and in English.


Miles:
> Rowling: Maybe. Ask again in 30 years.
> George Orwell: 1984 and Animal Farm - I guess these will stay, and both are 
> known worldwide
> Graham Greene: As an author? I don't know. The film The Third Man will 
> survive, I guess.
> C.S. Forester: Actually I do not know him, so...
> Terry Pratchett: Is this more than intelligent wordplay?
> Rudyard Kipling: Perhaps, thanks to Disney's world wide distribution
> Arthur C. Clarke. John Buchan: Who?
> James Joyce: Difficult reading. Maybe something for scholars in 100 years?
> Aldous Huxley: Brave new world - anything more? (I know more and love it, 
> but most people only know the title of B.N.W., not even the content)
> P.G. Wodehouse. Noel Coward: Who?
> 
> Tolstoy, Dostoievski: Especially Tolstoy, yes. Known worldwide, at least in 
> the northern hemisphere.
> Thomas Mann: Giant in German, I'm not sure about the world.
> Hermann Hesse: Popular in German and in the USA, but elsewhere?
> 
> What about Agatha Christie?
> 
> Paul McCartney and John Lennon (sic!)
> Picasso
> Dali
> Charlie Chaplin
> Alfred Hitchcock
> 
> And many more...


Alla:

Oh I know that Tolstoy is known and Dostoevsky as well, I was just saying that I do not think that any other Russian writers are known. Yes, definitely I think Picasso and Dali will stay. Yes, I am not sure Pratchett will stay for ages either.

Charlie Chaplin - oh heck yes, but we did not even touch actors in the discussion with my friend, I would hope he would agree.

Oh Hesse, I have unfortunately read only one work by him (so many books, so little time) and I cannot translate it from Russian. Oh well.


Miles:
> One should not forget modern ways of artistic expression. For example I 
> guess, in near future we will see great artists who construct virtual 
> realities - it won't be possible to call them "painter" or "author"...
> 
> In my experience, people who see so much to be remembered in the past and 
> near to nothing in their own time are quite often conservative in their 
> aesthetic value system. They try to find the ways of old in the new - not 
> finding it, or only finding it in those artists who copy and do not create.

Alla:

Conservative? I have no idea about my friend, although he is an older gentleman, so maybe somewhat. Myself? Not really, no,especially not in literature and music (is Alfred Shnitke for example known anywhere except Russia? I would call him a genuis), but I will fully admit that I will never understand why paintings like "Black square" are considered work of genuis, so I suppose in that area of art I am kind of conservative. Give me Impressionists and Neo Impressionists at any time over any other painters (usually go to the rooms with them in Metropolitan museum of art and can sit there forever) and of course I love older paintings too :) .


But I am again wondering, yes, it is the case of to close to judge, but is anybody of any doubt that Hitler, Lenin and Stalin will be remembered forever? As monsters, sure, but we as people who live in both 20 and 21 century are already perfectly confident in making that judgment, do we have such giants in arts (in a positive sense of course) to form such judgment for sure, not just wonder about it?