Faust and stuff

[eurydicebound]

So, the other night I'm working on this assignment I have, and it's actually going somewhat well. I'm trying to come up with a literary or historical example for this archetype I'm using, and the immediate one that comes to mind is Faust. It's pretty much perfect, but the part of me that isn't an English major says, "Are you sure people are going to get this reference?"

Given my smidgen of doubt, I decide to query for an opinion. I don't really believe it would be a problem, but it never hurts to get feedback. So like the good little techie writer I am, I trot over to the local IRC gamer hangout I frequent and posit the question online. The answer I get is a resounding "Who?"

Eep.

So I try again, this time querying the residents at the local writer's IRC hangout I frequent. This time the resounding answer is "Everyone will know who that is. No worries."

Ewwww-kay.

Now, I've spent the larger part of my college career enraptured by literary discussions of novels past and present, so if I'm overeducated in this field, so be it. But are all writers just that out of touch? Has modern culture moved so far from the literary motifs that meant so much to previous generations that they've become meaningless, or is it just that the names and faces have changed; the aliases are different, but the faces (barring a new coat of techno-makeup) are the same? Or is all this on some different scale that I'm not addressing here, with the ideas presented above being rather meaningless in the overall context of today's culture?

I dunno. It's all too much for my paltry brain. But I'm damn sure teaching my kids about Faust, all the same.

Comments

[ladyjestyr.livejournal.com]

It's a little disturbing to think that a collective of gamers - peers that we would like to think are educated and/or intellectual - have no idea who Faust is.

That's /really/ disturbing, actually. I'm inclined to say it's the writers who are out of touch - we tend to stay in contact with each other, reinforcing our own community cultures instead of broadening our contact networks to include people outside that little circle.

Still, it's not good that no-one knew who Faust was.