/lit/ - Literature

1) 1984 is not an epic in any sense
2) The end of history.

Looking at modernity, what could constitute epic?

I know of a few.

Breaking Bad is one.

>>4314279
I know its not epic but its a social critique of great enough scope and literary depth that's higher and seems to be more ambitious than many works today.

>>4314281
b 8

>>4314281
By epic I'm thinking more of epic in the spirit and ambition of the author to capture not just depth but scope. Whitman's ambition in fully writing out the whole of the individual and human experience into verse also counts.

>>4314295

>>4314301

It might as well be an autobiography. If you look at the classic epics, they were attempts to capture the zeitgeist within a character's exploits.

inb4 breaking bad does that i know it does

>>4314264
Your list has The Iliad, Paradise Lost, War and Peace, and......1984? wtf? 1984 does not belong on a list of that caliber lol, not at all. It is good, but not an epic, nor anything even approaching the grandeur and brilliance of the other works

>>4314279

>end of history

Not this crap again.

People's attention spans have been reduced to the point that they can only digest factoids.

There are no more intelligent people on this planet.

>>4314281
>>4314312
I haven't seen Breaking Bad, and I'm not sure I even know how to use spoilers right. Why you do this?

I would like to be seen as something like a modern Dumas or Hugo one day

>>4314873

To reiterate
>>4314289

I'm using it to show the spectrum of decline. Orwell's intricately built world has managed to penetrated the general social consciousness such that Big Brother and Newspeak as well as the many sociological concepts he popularized (like 2+2=5) have become mini-memes. The scope of his vision, though not epic in the scale of the past works, is still significant enough that it overshadows much of the lit today. Nowadays we're devoid of meaningful social texts with rigorous analysis or brilliant poetic visions.

>>4314961
It's because as we've become more and more connected, we've realized how small the world is.

The Iliad/Odyssey, they thought the entire world was flat, encircled by a river, and the gods lived on top of a mountain. Paradise Lost had a fantastic Christian setting, which is hell, the heavens, and the world.

Now we just have the hyper-connected Earth, drowned in banality, and dead space all around us. Perhaps we could call it disillusionment?

>>4314281
>

The word epic in recent years has become synonymous with big budget B picture. What you realize watching Lawrence of Arabia is that the word epic refers not to the cost or the elaborate production, but to the size of the ideas and vision. Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God didn't cost as much as the catering in Pearl Harbor, but it is an epic, and Pearl Harbor is not.

I'd argue that the modern epic won't be seen in the same forms as those of the past. The Illiad and Paradise Lost (and Dante's Inferno and The Aeneid) all tend to focus on one major character or group, and follow them as they move through a huge scope.

The modern era (or post-modern) tends to focus more on breaking up the linearity of these characters, and knows that a story cannot be told effectively through a singular Main point of view.

So therefore I'd argue that stuff like Infinite Jest is the closest that we're going to get in a modern epic. It focuses on, mostly, two main -groups- of characters, and expands the world story behind them with other sets. Its scope is the modern world with slight changes on it, but takes you to explore the -psyche- of the characters (through drugs and addictions and etc.) instead of the physical world around them, which has already been seen in previous epics.

>>4314968
Just so you know what the ancient Greeks knew:

The Earth is round.

>>4315784

>getaloadofthiscunt.jpg

These aren't exactly the classical greeks. The stories are set around 1100-1600 BC.

>>4315795
They still knew the earth was round. It's a myth that people of ancient times didn't know that. Even the builders of the pyramids knew it. The Mayans knew it, etc.

>>4315801

Cite your sources?

I'd be happy to believe that, but still.

>>4318061
>filename is not Sweet Euroesque
Dropped.

>>4315801
I thought Archimedes proved it.

>>4314264
Infinite Jest

>long as shit
>social criticism
>attempt at capturing zeitgeist


Based DFW

>>4314912
>>4314281
>>4315736
Breaking Bad could have been an epic except it copies the anine Deathnote in every aspect. I don't even like anime.

> MC dies at end
> He is good/evil
> Family man
> Always flies to close to the sun
> Everything is better in the end except for him

et cetera