Wednesday 17 February 2021

Three Timeless (Classics?)

I am concurrently rereading three timeless classics. In my mind, they are timeless but, to be "classics" in the public domain, they would have to be never out of print which is not necessarily the case. In these works:

Dominic Flandry travels through hyperspace to Diomedes and gets on the track of Aycharaych;

James Bond flies to Switzerland on the track of Blofeld;

Mikael Blomkvist on Hedeby island gets on the track of a serial killer.

(Bond and Blofeld have been immortalized on screen.)

Flandry will weaken Merseian Intelligence for years by bombarding Aycharych's home planet, Chereion;

Bond will destroy SPECTRE for a second time and track down Blofeld to the Castle of Death in Japan;

Blomkvist will track down not only the serial killer but also the criminal, Zala, and his backers in a rogue Section of Swedish Internal Security.

Timeless works that deserve to be classics - but the only way to attain that status is to keep selling.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I agree, the only way for any works of literature or poetry to become timeless classics is to keep being sold and read. And some of Anderson's works deserve to join that exalted category.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

And the villain’s “secret” lair has a balloon floating over it holding up a sign...

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

And I still remember with amusement how that NYC cop called the "lair" of the Samothracian agent his Fortress if Solitude in your book DRAKON.

Ad astra! Sean