[identity profile] jamesenge.livejournal.com 2009-11-21 06:11 pm (UTC)(link)
People seem to be fixing on sf, maybe because the future catches up with "predictions", but I can't really buy that. People went on reading stuff like Wells and early Heinlein (or Shelly, for that matter) long after it was clear that their future was not our future.

My choice is comedy, because comedy depends on social cues that will read very differently across the generations, and because the comic response is fairly limited in its nature. A drama may be emotionally powerful for a number of reasons, but something is either funny or it's not.

[identity profile] mmcirvin.livejournal.com 2009-11-21 09:46 pm (UTC)(link)
To me, Shakespeare's comedies are only mildly funny (if at all) today, but the tragedies are still extremely powerful. I don't know if Shakespeare was just better at tragedy, or if it's because comedy ages worse over 400 years.

[identity profile] keithmm.livejournal.com 2009-11-21 10:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, there is a lot of the dirty humor and snarky contemporary commentary which doesn't translate well. But the humor can come through with a little tweaking of of acting and setting.

Many years ago now I saw a Stratford production of The Taming of the Shrew. Bianca was played as a blonde bimbo, complete with Marilyn Monroe white dress and hairstyle, and the funniest scene had her tied to a chair while Kate started pulling the legs off her favourite teddy bear, each limb removal accompanied by a dismayed shriek from Bianca.