The modern world did not truly begin until around the First World War, although it was gestating during the 19th century. Even, for example, in the realm of art, the cubists and fauvists represented the first sharp break with traditional easel painting. Despite the furor over the Impressionists, one can see retrospectively how tentative their modernism really was. Similarly with literature, it is not until the interwar period that true modernism, such as Eliot, Pound, Joyce, and Kafka, manifests itself....
I am pro- modern, in case you hadn't figured that out. I think that the revolution in technology and medicine has been good, and am glad that life expectancy has increased. But one fact cannot supercede the whole complex of changes that we identify with modernization in importance....
I have a link on Lewis you may find interesting. I will see about one on Chesterton shortly:
ic.net
I agree with you in disliking Hemingway, but since I consider his influence mostly baneful, I will not include him. Perhaps if I do the alternative list, where one doesn't care about merit, I will put him on..... |
