Yesterday while standing in the check out line at Barnes&Noble, a small book caught my eye. It was little bigger than a saltine cracker, with an old-fashioned type writer on the cover, and its title suggested a challenge. Opening Lines: The First Sentences from Classic Plays, Poems, and Books. What had Classic Lit and the rest of my college education thus far really taught me? I decided to test myself. Flicking through to page one, I smiled as a southern accent came automatically to mind. I read aloud: "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter." Huck Finn's voice is possibly the most distinctive one I've ever read, making this line obvious even without the reference to Tom Sawyer.
I read on, trying to block out the conversation of the couple behind me buying Mockingjay. (My feelings for that book have no bearing on this post, so I'll neglect to mention how hard it was for me not to turn around and tell them not to buy the disappointing series conclusion. Team Gale!) And I soon happened across a line that I hadn't read since 7th grade, but recognized immediately. "Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that." A Christmas Carol is one of my all-time favorite stories. There is a reason that it has been adapted hundreds of time. From stage to film to television, the opera, and even two graphic novels. Nothing is ever so well-loved and so often revisited as when it holds up a mirror, shows us a simple truth, and challenges us to change. Of course, the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Yet to Come don't hurt its popularity either.
"Marley?" I looked up at the woman in front of me talking to her son. "I was thinking about the dog from the movie Marley and Me."
Closing the book slowly, I placed it back on the table. Marley and Me? I don't know that I can explain the sadness that swept through me as I realized that Dickens's Scrooge and Marley had been forgotten and replaced with a mischievous puppy. At this point, I know that I will sound to my Classic Lit compatriots like a parrot who has spent a little too much time in the Aling household, but it's amazing how little people nowadays know about the classics that form the foundation of our culture! Do kids today realize where Scrooge McDuck came from? What about "bah humbug!" And "God bless us, every one!"
Marley was dead. But he came back rattling chains in warning to Scrooge. Let's not ignore our own harbingers of cultural and literary incompetence. Get your head out of Mockingjay and go pick up a classic!
