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Seinfeld Is Unfunny/Literature: Difference between revisions
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* ''Amadis of Gaul'' is the most important knight-errant [[Chivalric Romance]] of all time, but today it seems dated, to the point that it has been all but forgotten and replaced in importance by its extremely angry [[Deconstruction]], ''[[Don Quixote]]''. Note, however, that ''Amadis of Gaul'' is saved from the fire for its merits in the chapter where the library of Don Quixote is being burned.
* ''[[Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret.]]'' is seen as a pretty tame book by today's standards, but its frank discussion of puberty and religious issues were controversial in the 70s when it was written and resulted in it being banned from many schools.
* ''[[Ball Four]]'', a 1970 book by Major League Baseball pitcher Jim Bouton, was so controversial that MLB commissioner Bowie Kuhn called the book "detrimental to baseball" and tried unsuccessfully to make Bouton sign a statement saying the book was fictional. Today, its revelations about the behind-the-scenes activities of major league players, which made Bouton extremely unpopular among many in the baseball community for violating the "sanctity of the clubhouse", don't seem nearly as shocking. One particular example is the book's revelation of widespread amphetamine use by major league players, which seems quaint compared to the steroid scandals of recent years.
* ''[[The Catcher in The Rye]]'': J.D. Salinger's novel started a [[Wangst]] revolution in literature that it's never come out of. As a result, those who've read similar-style books before reading Salinger's book often write ''Catcher'' off as okay at best, a poor man's [[Chuck Palahniuk]] at worst.
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* Science fiction in general. Technologies that used to be completely fantastic tend to become [[Truth in Television]] decades later. See also [[Technology Marches On]].
* ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' (1889) has fallen victim to it. It was one of the earliest [[Time Travel]] novels, and the protagonist's efforts to introduce "modern" technology and values in [[The Middle Ages]] was groundbreaking on its own. However this idea was followed in (among others) ''Lest Darkness Fall'' (1941), which was itself influential in the [[Alternate History]] genre, ''[[The Cross Time Engineer]]'' series, the ''[[1632]]'' series, and ''[[Timeline]]''. While The Man Who Came Early (1956) by [[Poul Anderson]] served as an influential [[Deconstruction]] of the concept. Nowadays its hard to realize what was unique in the original novel.
* [[William Morris]] (1834-1896) attempted to revive the [[Chivalric Romance]] genre with novels ''The Wood Beyond the World'' (1894) and ''The Well at the World's End'' (1896). Creating "an entirely invented fantasy world" as their setting. These works and his earlier [[Historical Fantasy]] novels influenced writers such as [[Lord Dunsany]], Eric Rücker Eddison, James Branch Cabell, [[J. R. R.
* ''[[The Great God Pan]] (1894)'' was a prototype [[Cosmic Horror Story]], notable for "the cumulative suspense and ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds". It was cited as a major influence by [[H.P. Lovecraft]], and (more recently) [[Stephen King]]. But part of the suspense is killed for the modern reader, who knows what to expect from the genre.
* Reading stuff written or set in the past could make people wonder just how the heck we even survived today - because in many older settings, you could hear mentions of people dying of diseases that are today almost completely unheard of. Smallpox, Scarlet Fever, Scurvy, Beriberi, Dysentery, Cholera...Yeah.
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