Hey, thanks Taylor Swift for that great post title. Doin' great work over there.
So I think I'm a romantic. Not a romantic with, like, a ton of feelings, or whatever. Definitely not that. Not an old-school, traditional romantic. A new romantic (hence the title). Except it's definitely not a new concept.
Basically, I am extremely nostalgic for a life I never lived. I wish I could walk into a coffeeshop or restaurant and be surrounded by people who know what they are talking about when it comes to the arts. Basically the 20s. I want to live in the 20s. I want to be able to go somewhere and have a legitimate conversation about an artist or a specific painting, or a musician that recently put out an album, or, to tie this whole rant to our class, the books people have been reading and talk with them about why they read them. To go somewhere and just read a book, and have a stranger come up to you and tell you that they just read it and oh my goodness that ending! Not that anyone in the 1920s would actually talk like that, but y'all get my drift.
If you can't tell from my posts, I'm really not a fan of all the changing technology and what it's doing to our culture. People just don't read or appreciate books anymore. No one sits down and talks about why Anna Karenina was actually so futuristic for its time and how relevant it is today about a woman being free to live her life the way she pleases. Or what actually happened in War and Peace. Or the brilliance of The Beautiful and the Damned. It's pretty rare to find someone in the world who can discuss these things, but not everyone in the world is an English/Writing major, obviously. There are a lot of idiots out there who don't know that Sherlock Holmes is actually a critically acclaimed series or even that The Shining is a book (yes, that is a real anecdote-I met someone in New York who did not know that the movie was based off the book and when I found that out my jaw dropped and I just walked away). I think it's incredibly sad that no one wants to read Dickens or that reading Steinbeck is a pain in the ass (again, true New York story).
I hate that books are becoming collectors' items and that people who read the classics/books in general are a dying breed.
I really like this post and find myself feeling the same way! Even though I do occasionally read current bestsellers, I wish most people went beyond reading them and looked at the classics. I think people don't give them enough of a chance now. Sometimes it just feels like discussions about culture are really limited to movies/tv. It frustrates me when people say reading is boring or there isn't a reason to read classics once you leave school. I believe being well-read is a valuable skill. I'm thankful for the few people I do know that I can talk about books and art with.
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