Blogging assignment #1

“Literature doesn’t evolve or improve or progress.” (p. 9)

Frye believes that the literary work of the classics, for example Shakespeare, will never be surpassed. The dramatic writings of these past eras will always serve as a model for future generations or “as long as the human race endures” (10). His expression that literature does not evolve, improve or progress simply states that we have already witnessed writing at its best. As Frye states in Chapter 2, “every form in literature has a pedigree,” (19) where we can trace its descent back. He believes that all writers write from a “previous experience of literature” (19). On the contrary, science evolves and improves as time passes; we know more today than we have in the past. I agree with Frye; present day literature is a modified version of the classics. For example, a reader can identify a stock character from a Shakespearean play to one from a twentieth century novel. Lastly, this quotation does have a connection to McCullough’s speech (#16 ...So there I was....I read...Don Quixote- for the first time in my life. What a joy!) After so many years, a classic is read and its excellence is thoroughly appreciated; “classic” being the key word.