“There’s No Such Thing As Classic” by Halla Miller
“What is classic anymore?”

"Art," as defined, is transforming. No longer can one just observe a painting, watch a film, or read a piece of text. Modernity has made it so that there is always something more to experience. There are infinite possibilities. But art is also losing its original form. This is something that needs to be preserved to be able to understand where that art came from. It is important to see the effects that modern technology is having on traditional art and literature. My project goes to show how a "classic" piece of literature has been changed over time for various entertainment purposes. Using PowerPoint I made a "public service announcement" comparing the various forms of this piece to see what changes were made in its evolution. There were some amazing differences in relation to the techniques the producers used to appeal to different audiences, which made me decide that its ok to "update" a work as long as you preserve to original. I think that for the future, I will use this project as a reminder of how much things change, and how it is important to hold on to the original.

chocokel's perspective on "There's No Such Thing As Classic"

Appealing to theater geeks, movie buffs, and ballet enthusiasts alike, this e-chapter takes Shakespeare’s classical literature and analyzes its occurrence in three different media. The chapter effectively touches on the debate we had in this course about how we experience different forms of text. Over the span of our class, Halla’s chapter has come from a vague idea of a comparison collage to a well-thought-out and organized PowerPoint/manifesto combination. In this e-chapter, I was given the chance to experience the difference in interpretation by viewing the different versions of the play Romeo and Juliet. I discovered that the more complex the version was, the more the version had the tendency to sway the audience’s understanding of the play; thus giving them less liberty to infer on their own. Halla’s chapter is easily accessible and extremely interesting in the way she uses specific examples of Shakespeare’s work and follows them with her own thoughtful dialogue. The chapter finishes with her following commentary in form of a manifesto that not only ties her research together, but polishes the piece off with a healthy bit of brain food for her audience.

or see other chapters in this e-book.