I keep thinking back to a discussion a few months on reddit about THE BELGARIAD. Several comments were made about it being cliche and pedestrian, and someone said, “Yeah, it’s a fine story, but it’s never going to be a classic.”— Marshall Ryan Maresca 🛡WAY OF THE SHIELD 10/2/18 (@marshallmaresca) July 10, 2018
At what point does something become a "classic", and how do we bestow that honor? And when a book has a generation between when it came out and now, how does it read in the present?And all I could think to respond was, “It’s over thirty years later and we’re still talking about it. How is that NOT ‘a classic’?— Marshall Ryan Maresca 🛡WAY OF THE SHIELD 10/2/18 (@marshallmaresca) July 10, 2018
These are questions I've asked myself as I've dug into a re-read of The Belgariad, a series that was very influential to me in my youth, but I hadn't read in years. And how does it hold up? How does it not? How problematic is my problematic fave? I've been digging into this as I re-read and livetweet the re-read. Sometimes you have to tear down a classic, even one you love.
You can follow along with the #Belgariad hashtag, or here's a threadreader roll-up of everything so far. Right now I'm about midway through the third book, and I've been going along at about a book a week. (Though expect me to get a bit behind next week, because Many Things Are Happening.)
It's all been a very interesting and enlightening process. A lot to unpack in it all.
