Why classic literature is as important today as it has ever been

Classic literature is something which should be treasured, but too often can summon uncomfortable memories of school days when we were forced to burrow through Cliffs Notes to find out what it all meant really.

However, there are many reasons to revisit classic literature – or even delve books you have previously been too daunted to get into. Without the dread of having writing an assignment on a classic novel, reading it for enjoyment can open up a whole new way of reading.

Here are some reasons why classic literature is so important now more than ever.

It improves concentration and helps you focus on details

In the same way that the complex patterns of classical music are a great way to give your brain a workout, so too is reading classical literature. In today’s world of endless instant, but ultimately meaningless, information and short attention spans, it can take great discipline to read Charles Dickens take two or three pages to describe the contents of a room, or Joseph Conrad detail a man walking down the street over half a chapter.

That kind of detail is very different to modern literature and not what many of us are used to, but that richness of language forces us to slow down and concentrate, which is no bad thing in today’s hectic world.

They inspire great ideas

We can get bogged down on a daily basis with petty and ill-informed debates on social media. Classic literature, however, deals with grand ideas and incisive social commentary. We can learn a lot more from the themes in classic literature than we get from opinionated malcontents online.

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The impact of Dante’s Inferno

It has been over 700 years since Dante’s Inferno was first written, and a despite the age of the manuscript, it is still one book that has a huge influence on pop culture. Here’s how Dante’s Inferno is still impacting our lives.

The questions it asks

One of the main reasons that Dante’s Inferno has remained so popular is because of the questions that it asks. These questions are the ones for the ages, the questions that seem far beyond human understanding, but we take each of the questions and try to improve our knowledge and philosophies in an attempt to answer them – What is evil? What is redemption?

Understand the forms of human evil

As the first of the divine comedies, Dante’s Inferno looks at all the different types of human evil from the minor to the most depraved and brings them all before the eyes of the reader. Yes, you are in a torture chamber of evil, but it goes beyond that to a level that forces you to question the nature of evil.

The appearances in all elements of culture

All three parts of the Divine Comedies feature within popular culture, but particularly Dante’s Inferno. From the art of Giovanni di Paolo where he represents Paradisio, to the Auguste Rodin’s sculpture group, the gates of hell, the imagery of Inferno has provided plenty of fodder for artists. But the impact does not stop there. Chaucer, Milton, Marx, T.S. Eliot, E. M. Forster, Philip Pullman and even Dan Brown all draw on elements of Dante’s Inferno in their work. And of course the phrase “Abandon hope all Ye who enter here” is inscribed above the gates of hell in Dante’s Inferno, and is an often quoted line in TV and cinema.

For more on how the classics impact the modern world, visit www.lassmedia.com where you will find more interesting effects and legacies that classic literature has left behind.