Tandem Talks: Reading the Classics
Jen - Hello and welcome to the Tandem Collective Talks podcast.
Lex - Tandem Collective celebrates Books, Film, TV, podcasts and more with our global community.
Lucy - Weโre Jen, Jaide, Lucy and Lex, members and friends of Team Tandem. You might already know us on Instagram or Tik Tok, but if not, it's great to meet you and welcome.
Jen - We're here to chat to you about what's new in the world of books, publishing and film, interview some of your favorite authors and hear your thoughts on what you're reading and watching at the moment.
Jaide - You can find us at @tandemcollectiveuk on Instagram and also @tandemcollectiveglobal
Jen - Good morning everyone and welcome to the Tandem Collective Talks podcast. This episode is about reading the classics. We would all like to note that we are recording this episode in the morning and we hardly ever record in the morning because all of us are caffeine dependent humans. I believe Lex has not even had a cup of coffee yet.
Lex - Not a single ounce of caffeine has passed these lips yet, so I cannot be held responsible for what I may or may not say.
Jen - Lucy Jones, are you caffeinated?
Lucy - I am. Not with coffee, but I've had a vat of tea this morning, so I'm good to go.
Lex - So British.
Jen - So British. So I'm on to the second basically bucket of coffee, but that's still very low on caffeine for me. So you're going to have to excuse any giggling, general silliness, forgetting what we're here for. So, reading the classics; I thought because there's so much discussion about what a classic is, how do we define a classic, that it might be helpful to just start with a dictionary definition. The Collins Dictionary defines classics as; โa book which is well known and considered to be of a high literary standardโ. Do you agree with that definition? Lex is shaking her head. Lex?
Lex - I thinkโฆ.All right. Here's the tea. And I think I'm diving in because this does equate directly to my problem with classics, is that last line of โmust be of a high literary standardโ. I think that is what sets classics on a pedestal that makes so many people, and myself included in this, feel like I can't read them; like I'm not smart enough. I'm not going to get it. Like, it's not written for me. But then there are so many books that I can think of that I would consider classics, but I would question their literary status. I'm not sure if they're highly literary works, but I would consider them classics.
Jen - So do you think we should amend that dictionary definition to say โbooks you can boast about that might not be fun to readโ?
Lex - Iโฆ Mmmโฆ it's hard. My definition of a classic would be something that was a bit of a cornerstone moment for either your reading or society at the time. Or I feel like also, for me - sorry, we're jumping straight into this definitions wise - classic in my head has got a correlation with Regency or with things like Jane Eyre, Bronte, blah, blah blah. And you can tell by my super nonchalant tone that I just don't care about these books.
Jen - Mm.. I think my definition..
Lex - I shouldnโt say that.
Jen - No, it's okay. They're not humans. Youโre allowed to say that. I think for me a classic is more about how it endures over time and whether it kind of stands up to time. What would you say Luce? Howโd you come to define it?
Luce - Yeah. Very similar to that point Jen. So I always associate a classic with something that has stood the test of time and is โฆ.perhaps still popular isn't the right word because I feel that there will be a lot of people who agree with Lex and don't feel obligated to read what are considered classics at all, you know, in the modern day. But it's just so interesting that it has to meet both of those criteria from the definition, because you could have something that is of a high literary standard - like can you imagine if nobody had ever buzzed about Great Expectations? It would still be of a high literary standard, but just nobody would have ever read it -and then therefore would it have made its way into the classics list? Probably not. Yeah, I just think it's so, so subjective and it's also going to change dramatically over time. Like what will be the classics in 50 years from now, 100 years from now. A very round the houses way of answering your question!
Jen - No, it's really good. But also there was a word you just said, Luce, that I wanted to pull out because to me, I think it sums up how a lot of us feel about the classics and that was โobligatedโ. So I think especially where we work with books, we work across the reading community, there are definitely moments where you feel like you are not doing it right or you can't be taken seriously if you haven't got that strong backbone of, โwell, you know, I read Bronte every weekend and I've read every Daphne du Maurier everโ. I don't think it should be about that if you don't enjoy them - like you don't enjoy them Lex, I don't think that makes anybody less of a serious reader, and I'm not quite sure where that has come from.
Luce - I think it's societal pressure maybe because, again, think back to the time when those books were written. Those kind of books maybe weren't as accessible to everybody. So there probably was an elitist element to them. And then now, I definitely think these kinds of conversations are becoming more common and people are being more transparent about their views on classics. But there probably is still a bit of, oh, you know, do people feel that they're a failure of a English lit student if they don't enjoy any of the classics or they don't get any of the classics, which is not true. We're here to tell you.
Jen - 100%.
Hello, everyone. It's Jen. Please, could you write, review and subscribe to the podcast? It really helps us. And also we just really like feeling loved. If you would like to chat to us or you have anything you'd like to recommend that we read, you can email us at podcast@thetandemcollective.com.
So Lex, have you ever read anything you would consider to be a classic and enjoyed it?
Lex - Well, yes and no. The reason that I am on the fence is because I am currently looking at the Sunday Times Culture magazine from the Sunday Times this weekend, and there's an article in it that says โThe 40 best books of the Century. On the 100th anniversary of Ulysses, our panel of writers and critics pick the finest novels published since Joyce's classic.โ
So it's essentially a list of all of these classic books that they think that you should have read. And I think I've read two of them, one of them being The Talented Mr. Ripley, which I wouldn't have classed as a classic, but in the crime genre was definitely a kind of turning point and definitely a book of note. And the other one is The Handmaid's Tale. Again, I'm not sure I would have said that that was a classic, but it is. Since Handmaid's Tale came out in 1985, it's still as relevant and entertaining and as disturbing as it was. So I think that denotes it as a classic for me.
Lucy - There's a lot of outside influences that can shape that, because I think a lot of people are made to study or read classics at school, you know, like at secondary school. I think a lot of people would have read some Jane Eyre, maybe some Austen and, you know, that's such a important period of your life. And there's lots going on during adolescence and things like that that can, I think, really affect how you look back a book and whether you have that positive or negative nostalgia about it. Does that make sense?
Jen - Absolutely. I think all of us who read for work can kind of admit that sometimes there can be less pleasure in reading something because you have to get through it than just because you've just picked it up. So having to read something in education because it's on the syllabus, it's always going to bring slightly less joy to it.
Lex - So my Dad had to read Emma for his O-levels and I don't understand what on earth possessed someone to set that book for a bunch of 15 year old boys? Emma where there are four pages dedicated solely to her dress. You're so right. That kind of forced consumption of a book, that is never going to turn somebody into somebody who really adores that kind of writing. That being said, can we talk about adaptations?
Jen - Yes. So I thought what we might do is if we go to my interview with Sanne, listen to my chat with Sanne, and then we'll come back and go through our favourite classics, whether that's in book form or whether that's in adaptation form.
Lex - Sold. Cool.
Jen - We'll be back in a bit.
Everyone, you're here with Jen and I'm here with Sanne, who is booksandquills on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, to talk about reading the classics. Hello, Sanne.
Sanne - All right. Thanks so much for having me. What a good topic.
Jen - No, no problem at all. So it's a really interesting topic because I think it's one that people are really nervous about actually. Where do you think the hesitance to jump into the classics comes from?
Sanne - I feel like there's this obligation besides just be able to, you know, read it and get through it to really get it and understand it. Like there seems to be this deeper level of understanding that you need to be able to have to read a classic, and that expectation doesn't seem to be there as much with any other kind of reading where you just get to, you know, read it and enjoy it.
And I think for me, the way that I've gotten over that is that I've studied English Literature in the Netherlands and English is my second language. That's kind of another hurdle, especially in the beginning. And it really helps to imagine yourself as a reader at the time, because a lot of these books were written for the same reason that books are written now, which is for entertainment.
And so imagining that you're, you know, however many hundreds of years ago it is or just 50 or 100, I'm just imagining that you are a reader from that day picking it up because you've heard about it. It's exciting. It's supposed to be fun. I think going in with that mindset rather than โI'm going to need to study this text and really, really get itโ, hopefully is the first step towards enjoying it more and finding it less daunting.
Jen - Yeah, I think that's absolutely it and I think I have had that nervousness certainly before now and before I started talking to other readers, that I would be hesitant to get into a classic in case, as you say, I didn't get it. And then I would feel that that impacted on how intelligent I was or how much of a reader I was if I didn't get the subtext. But as you say, it's just about picking it up and giving it a go and seeing how you get on with it. I quite often don't tell anybody I'm reading a classic, so if I don't get it, I can always just Google and figure out if I have to mention it to anyone.
Sanne - And then I feel like OK, I have a masters in like English literature and I can pick up a classic and go โOh, well, I don't get itโ Or like, โOh, this is hardโ. My favourite classic is Wuthering Heights, and I struggled to get through it sometimes and that's okay. Like, you don't have to understand every word, every reference. Sometimes I just want to say, just go by vibes, just read to see what you can pick up. You will get the story, you will get how the characters are feeling, even if you read a whole page that makes you go โOh Iโm not actually sure what they're trying to do hereโ, but just push through it and take as much as you can, and you'll get loads of enjoyment from that. I think.
Jen - I am exactly the same with Dracula, which I would say is probably in my top three. I've read it three or four times. As youโll know, it's a huge chunk of a book. And I feel like I've lost months of my life to that book. And in parts of it I genuinely am still not sure what's going on, but I love it. I love the character, I love the setting, I love the general vibe, love Dracula. But there are points of the book where I will read it and just think, I don't know what anyone's doing right now.
Sanne - Yeah, for sure.
Jen - And I listened to it on audio as well to see if I got anything else from it that way. And I did a little bit, but Iโve just stopped giving myself a hard time. If there are chapters of it where I feel like I'm just completely lost, fine, and I will just go with my overall feeling.
Sanne - Definitely. And if you're really invested in it and you do like it and you want to know more, you can look into that and read a bit more background information. I like - which I used to skip - the intros of the classics, usually there's a very good essay at the beginning. When I was at uni I used to skip those and I thought โNo, I need to get this reading done this week. I'll just get straight to the book.โ And I've started reading those intros and actually sometimes they're so helpful for giving you that bit of context, because they are written to prep you for the book. And I've read a few of the intros where I thought, โOkay, youโre trying to speak to fellow scholars, you're not trying to speak to readers and make this accessibleโ, but some of the intros are very accessible, so it's worth giving it a go as well, I think. And then maybe I can fill in some of the blanks in advance, even.
Jen - Yeah, that's a really good tip. So you mentioned Wuthering Heights, Sanne. What is it about that that makes it your absolute favourite?
Sanne - It's so funny because it's such a little, like, disturbing, problematic in so many ways story. I don't know how familiar you are with it, but I think I love a doomed love story. So knowing that it's not going to end well, it's very dramatic. The setting in Yorkshire on the moors, the haunting. Everything about it. I recently visited the parsonage, the Bronte parsonage, where the sisters lived for quite a while and where they wrote some of these books, and walking there and kind of seeing what their day to day life would have been likeโฆ. Something that makes Wuthering Heights so special is thinking about this young woman living in this town and then how her imagination inspired her to write this book. I just can't quite put it together, that that is what kind of makes it feel so special as well, thinking about the person who wrote it and maybe where this came from.
Jen - Yeah, that's amazing. And that actually fits in really well to an experience I had with my favorite classic, which actually I'm going to talk about a little bit more in the outro as well. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.
Sanne - Oh, yes, yeah.
Jen - My all time favourite book. You can't see this because me and Sanne are on video. I've got the bride of Frankenstein on my forearm and then Frankenstein himself on my upper arm.
Sanne - Incredible.
Jen - Thereโs the House of Frankenstein in Bath, which tells you the whole story of Mary Shelley. It's fantastic. And it's almost a museum to Mary Shelley, but then it also has kind of a cinema room at the top and just it's really museumy and beautiful. I was so moved, seeing and learning more about her life and how she wrote and her marriage. And you just, you get so involved in it. I think now when we read, if we really like an author, quite often we can just follow them on social media. So being able to feel that closeness with an author of a classic is just amazing, isn't it?
Sanne - Have you read Romantic Outlaws?
Jen - No.
Sanne - It's the biography of her and her mother, and it's written an alternative chapters. So like her mother then her. Her mother then her. It's huge. It's really huge. But it's super readable - at first I saw 400, 500 pages. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And I started it, and it actually reads really, really well, really accessible. So yeah, if you like that museum, then you'll love this.
Jen - I think I'm going to have to read it, arenโt I? Absolutely going to have to.
Sanne - It's amazing. Beautiful cover as well.
Jen - That's going on my reading list. So in the opposite direction; are there any classics that you felt like you really should get on with and you thought you were going to that you've just struggled with?
Sanne - Yes. I recently read War of the Worlds.
Jen - Mm.
Sanne - I love apocalyptic fiction. I love dystopian fiction. And so I'm trying to very, very slowly make my way through some of those, like apocalyptic classics. I thought War of the Worlds, obviously that's going to be totally my thing. I love that it's set in London. I always love like a, you know, apocalyptic vision of London. Day of the Triffids is one of my favourite sci fi classics also set in London, and I listened to the audio version of War of the Worlds. There's this really great set of, I think, three books by Orson Welles and it's read by different actors. I think maybe this was even David Tennant that did kind War of the Worlds. I can't quite remember. So I thought it's going to be an absolute winner.
It was so boring. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone, even though it was short. I thought that was going to be a five star read and I was very disappointed.
Jen - You think that's because of how it's aged and that maybe it was fantastic at the time?
Sanne - Yes, because I think at the time, especially when they did the radio play, people got so scared and thought it was real. And I think you do become more used to things, sort of what was shocking at a certain point or, you know, totally new and exciting maybe now feels like you've sort of read it all. So yeah, I do think that obviously at the time it would have been a very different experience. So it's a shame I can't experience it like that. But yeah, for right now, in 2022, it was not the one.
Jen - Because I think so many of the classics and so many of what we all think of as classics depend so much on their sense of timing. I mean, I was thinking about what I think should be a classic in the future, and I was even thinking about children's classics. So like Jacqueline Wilson and those kind of books that we've all read. And then I feel like the things that are going to hold that type of book, and actually a lot of Stephen King books, back from being classics, is that they are so in the time that they're written, when you read them in 15 years or so, they're going to feel incredibly of their time and incredibly dated, whereas quite often with the classics it still feels so relevant.
Sanne - Yeah, I feel like it's such a lottery to see what will be a classic in the future, because there must be so many incredible books from 100, 200 years ago that at the time maybe were appreciated for a few years, and then got lost to time. And now there will be an author that actually has read an essay about it, digs it back up, promotes it again. I think Austen lost a bit of popularity, and then a biography of hers brought her back to popularity again. But then so much of it just seems like random luck, because there's just so many books being published every single year and then, you know, maybe a handful of those every year will make it through to the next however many hundreds of years. I think most of the ones that immediately came to mind that I think are sort of contemporary now and could be future classics are ones that I think some people might already class as modern classics. The first thing that came to mind was Never Let Me Go.
Jen - Yep, yep.
Sanne - Something about that feels like it's sort of lost in time, as in like it's not set at this very specific date. When I think about it, I mean, Station Eleven, especially after we obviously have a pandemic happening, that's going to be such an interesting discussion in the future for people to talk about. It already is right now, but it might even be more interesting in the future. And then I think Parable of the Sower and Kindred by Octavia E. Butler. I think they're probably already modern sci fi classics. I would say those are some of the ones that came to mind for me.
Jen - I noted down, quite similarly to you, Beloved by Toni Morrison but I think a lot of people probably already consider that a classic. And then I had Sarah Perry. So have you read Melmoth or the Essex Serpent?
Sanne - No, I haven't. But I really want to and Iโm reading the Essex Serpent right now.
Jen - Oh, it's brilliant. And I think, again, it's got that kind of timeless quality that I can see people in future reading it and really loving it and enjoying it.
Sanne - I was sort of going into it like โOkay, historical, I'm very interestedโ and then I read a few paragraphs and just thought โWow, it's like every page is going to be something special, I thinkโ.
Jen - That's it exactly. I think now we see it's really, really good contemporary fiction, but I really think it's one that's going to stand the test of time. But again, I think you're right. I think it'sโฆ I don't know what the equivalent of Netflix is going to be in 20 years, but what somebody from that picks up and says, actually, we're going to make this book really sexy and do a series that will be a classic.
Sanne - Definitely.
Jen - Do you have any tips, Sanne, other than the ones you gave us earlier, that if somebody wants to start with a classic, which book do you think they should start with?
Sanne - So I don't want to give a specific book, but I want to give some tips that help so that people can pick their own. I think it's very easy to fall into the you know, โthese are the ones I've heard of, so this is what I should readโ. But it's the same as when you walk into a bookshop. Now, you wouldn't like every book in there. You wouldn't do as youโre told if someone just randomly gave you a book and went โread thisโ, it might not be to your taste at all.
So I'd say start by following the taste that you already know that you have and look for something, a classic that matches that, that interest or that setting. I think that's probably half the work. And then I think there's nothing wrong with watching an adaptation alongside or beforehand. I did that with Shakespeare a lot. I struggle with Shakespeare even though I enjoy it, and I would just, you know, read a bit of it and then watch the adaptation to the point where I'd read and go, okay, yes, confirm, I understand what's going on. Or I didn't, and now I do. And I think that's quite a nice way of doing it as well. And then also just looking at people who are already reading classics, whether it's a friend or someone you follow online, and taking that personal recommendation. I really want to read 100 Years of Solitude, which beforehand, from the description, I would have gone โI don't know if this is the one for me or if it's a bit difficultโ. And then my partner read it and loved it and he keeps talking about it. So I thought, okay. I'll take that. I'll take that recommendation, then I'll go with that.
Jen - Absolutely. Those are really good tips. And like you said with watching alongside as well, like when I was reading Dracula, I think having any other format of it can be so helpful.
Sanne - Yeah, definitely.
Jen - Don't be afraid to just look it up online because people will have studied it. So there will be notes and hints and tips that are going to help you with it. And then I think my other one is probably don't be afraid to jump into a short story collection.
Sanne - Oh, yeah.
Jen - Somebody particularly like Daphne du Maurier has The Birds as a short story. And if you're thinking, โI'm going to get into the Gothic classicsโ, but you don't want to start with a big chunky book and youโre nervous, just pick up a short story and if you love it, great, you can read more. If you think โthis is really not for meโ, then at least you can say, โYeah, I read that one. I didn't love it. I tried something elseโ.
Sanne - Yeah. And I think what you're saying about audio as well, like I love to listen to classics in audio and I think I had this idea where with certain classics, I feel I need to read the physical book just because I've like built up this idea of what my reading experience is going to be. And then in the end, it means I didn't get around to reading them at all. So I think audio can be such a wonderful way of experiencing it. And sometimes with certain books, like watching a play, sometimes it feels like you're part of the story even more. Yeah, I mean, Dracula, I think the one I listened to is narrated by Mark Gatiss.
Jen - Brilliant.
Sanne - And it was so, so good too. I definitely recommend that as well.
Jen - Fantastic. All right. Thank you very much, Sanne. That's been amazing. I'm going to let you go. Thank you for all your help.
Sanne - Thank you. Bye.
Jen - Today's episode is sponsored by our monstrous loves and great friends, House of Frankenstein in Bath, featuring all kinds of Frankensteiny history, an atmospheric journey through Mary Shelley's life and escape room, and a particularly terrifying basement. This house is basically paradise if you enjoy Gothic literature or like to be scared. This is a strange thing to say, but I'm sure nobody will be surprised to hear that this is my happy place.
You can book tickets or see more details at houseoffrankenstein.com or House of Frankenstein Bath, across social media. Thank you so much, team House of Frankenstein. See you soon.
Hello again everyone, it is Jen Lex and Luce. It's still the morning and we are going to talk about that fantastic chat with Sanne. Lex, what did you think?
Lex - I loved it. I think Sanne speaks really eloquently about the classics with the understanding that not every classic is for every person. I feel like there's a lot of pressure within the kind of bookish community to read certain things, and I love that Sanne can say, โYes, this one was great. I absolutely love this. But actually, you know, this was a little bit hard to get into or this wasn't for me.โ
Yeah, I feel like she was the perfect guest for this episode.
Jen - She was brilliant. Luce?
Lucy - Yeah, I thought very refreshing conversation, you know, really trying to reassure people almost that you don't have to have read all the classics. You don't have to like all of the classics. That's not a reflection of someone's reading abilities. Also, Jen, I fully endorse your thought about Jacqueline Wilson being considered a classic further down the line.
Jen - Yes, she absolutely must be, surely.
Lucy - Yes, she's great.
Lex - I mean, Girls in Love. I was talking about this book just yesterday. I canโt remember who I was talking to about it. Oh, it was you! Of course it was you. Yeah. Girls in Love. I can reference that book to most readers my age, and they will know exactly what I'm talking about. Like I mentioned it to Luce yesterday and she was like, โYes, it's Magda. It'sโฆโ I've forgotten them already.
Lucy - Magda, Nadine and Ellie.
Lex - Nadine and Ellie. Yeah, they were my friends growing up. That's a classic to me.
Lucy - Yeah. That whole Jacqueline Wilson series feels like a rite of passage when you're, you know, kind of going through your teenage years reading.
Jen - Absolutely. I feel like they were the step between reading children's books and then reading proper adult contemporary literature. I mean, at least for me, because they were scandalous enough that you're like, โOohโ, but they're also age appropriate.
Lex - And when you think about it - and we are digressing now - I could do a whole episode on Jacqueline Wilson. The books dealt with really dark content at some points. Yeah.
Lucy - Body image and bullying, yeah.
Lex - I think in the Girls in Love series, didn't one of them have a thing with one of their teachers or something? She was writing letters to one of her teachers. And then you've got Illustrated Mum, you've got this really kind of hard relationship with your parents. Bed and Breakfast Star. You've got people living in hotels because they can't afford their own homes. So it makes total sense that people read these as children and then go on to read things like Jodi Picoult, which I might say is like an adult Jacqueline Wilson. Can I say that? Do I want to go on record to say that? I'm not sure.
Jen - I think say that on record.
Lex - I think I stand by it.
Jen - She absolutely endures. So I happen to know a 14 year old girl very, very well. And she is a massive Jacqueline Wilson fan. Her shelves are almost all Jacqueline Wilson. And I think from the first book she read, and she's read books that I was reading by Jackie Wilson when I was her age, she just loved it and it all felt super helpful, super relevant, moving. But it gives you a bit of an idea about life and it just shows we need those books as younger teenage girls. We need them. People will read Jacqueline Wilson forever. I think. But in terms of literature outside Jacqueline Wilson, what are your classics favourites Lex?
Lex - So I've been thinking about it and I actually read a lot of Shakespeare as a kid and I was wondering, can I have Shakespeare as a classic?
Jen - Yes 100%.
Lucy - I think so.
Lex - So great. Okay. Well, in that case, like, I was a drama kid. So Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, Much Ado About Nothing. I know those texts quite well, obviously Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes in Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet changed my life, that film is insane and I wish that I could have been Claire Danes every day of my life.
Jen - Leonardo DiCaprio has never looked better.
Luce - Oh, I don't know. I think Titanic edges it slightly for me.
Jen - Really?
Lucy - It's the braces. It's the braces.
Lex - But thinking along more of the way that I read now, which is obviously a lot more crime thriller based, I haven't read any Marple or Poirot, and I think that's going to be where my jam is for classics. Thatโs my prediction.
Jen - I agree for you. For sure. Luce, how about you?
Lucy - So I did the usuals in school, I can remember really liking Jane Eyre. And again when I said before about outside influences shaping how you feel about classics, I had a brilliant English teacher when I was about 15. Like, I absolutely loved her. I remember pulling lots out of that book. Because there's such a big emphasis on dreams and I remember having lots of interesting discussions about it. So I really liked Jane Eyre and I have read that as an adult. But my favourite classic is Little Women, if that's considered classic. I have read that multiple times and I was trying to think before this interview about why I liked it so much. But again, I think it's like what Lex was saying about, you know, she was a drama kid. I come from a family where I have one brother. Apparently when he was born, I said I wanted a sister. I think I loved the relationship between the four sisters and the fact that their personalities were also different. I think I like to maybe think of myself as a little bit of a Jo because I was really into writing when I was younger and then you know, talking about adaptations; one of my earliest memories of going to the cinema was when my mum took me to see the Winona Ryder film and I just loved it. Itโs one of those books that feels, even though it's a classic and is still, you know, kind of a long read that you're not going to whizz through in a day, but it just feels very comforting and quite a nostalgic book for me.
Jen - I love that like Sanne said, when you have to think about what you actually read and are interested in to choose a classic, that's going to work for you, that's really true of all of us. So you're really a romance relationships reader Luce and that shows through in the classics that you love. Lex is a crimey drama kid and again, so Romeo and Juliet, heavy on the heavy on the drama and death. So yeah. Mine are obviously the gothic classics, like Frankenstein is my all time favourite book. I love Dracula. I love the Picture of Dorian Gray. So yeah, it really reflects in what all of us read now, the classics that we love and kind of go back to.
Lex - Some of my favourite adaptations are of your favourite books. Jen, I can't remember if we've talked about this, but I feel like I would be surprised if we hadn't. But I really loved the 2020 Dracula adaptation that the BBC did, that Mark Gatiss did, and I think it was starring somebody called Claes Bang. Okay, Jenโs throwing up heart hands. Okay, good. We like it. I liked that. It was interesting. It was sexy. It was a bit confusing, but it was gothic and it made me go, โOh, actually, I do want to read the original.โ
Jen - Yeah, it was. That was so good. I feel quite often what goes wrong with Dracula adaptations is they make it quite campy and there's nothing wrong with anything being campy, but they make Dracula this really kind of campy figure whereas in the BBC one he was this kind of dark, sinister, incredibly sexy guy, and that's how a good Dracula should be. That wasโฆ I love that adaptation. It's my favourite adaptation.
Lucy - I have wanted to read Dracula for years and Jen, does it upset you enormously to know that I've never read it?
Lex - That neither of us have ever read it.
Jen - No. Okay, I'm going to say something controversial here.
Lex - Hold up, this is the audiogram coming, this is the snippet coming.
Jen - I love Dracula. Unless you really, really, really want to do it, I do not recommend that anyone reads it.
Lucy - Wow!
Jen - Itโs a huge chunk of a book. Parts of it are incredibly confusing. Some of it can feel very repetitive. It is not an easy read. If you really want to be able to say, โI've read Draculaโ, read Dracula.
Lex - But did they do like a CliffsNotes abridged edition?
Jen - Like a childrenโs edition? My First Dracula.
Lucy - How about we split it - you read the first half, I read the second half, and then we just a brief each other about theโฆ
Lex - Deal. Yeah.
Jen - I think even if you do that, you're still committing to about 300 pages each?
Lucy - But do we feel pressured to read it because it's considered a classic? Or is it just very different from classics that I am already familiar with and have enjoyed because it is definitely from that more gothic horror family. There is just a curiosity there, but I can't promise you I'll read it. Maybe I'll just watch the 2020 adaptation instead.
Jen - Oh, I would really recommend listening to it on audio. So when I listened to audio I think I listened to maybe a chapter a day for absolutely ages. But on Spotify, if you just search Dracula by Bram Stoker, there's somebody who's actually recorded it and released it in chapters. So that's a really easy way to do it. And it feels a lot easier to just break it down into chunks and not get so stuck in the language of it.
Lucy - Maybe I'll take that. Chapter a day for a year.
Jen - Maybe thatโs what we need to do, the podcast team. We get up, we get a coffee, we put the chapter of Dracula on and then we have a two minute chat about it.
Lex - Really like the suggestion of doing classics via audiobook because I think it does take away that pressure. Like you say, if you've got a book in your hands that's 800 pages long and you've only managed to get in 75 pages that day, suddenly it still feels like you've got so much to wade through. But if it's just on your headphones whilst you're puttering, it takes away some of the pressure.
Lucy - And it makes them seem less intimidating. I can remember we had to read Middlemarch by George Orwell at university and that's like 800 pages and there was a nervousness about that class compared to lots of the others. I do think people find them intimidating. And sometimes, you know, there's probably a bit of pretense. People find them intimidating but don't want to let on. Again, going back to that pressure of, oh, you have to enjoy the classics and you know, it means something if you don't. But yeah, I think that could have been a lot more straightforward if we'd listened to it by audio.
Lex - And I wasn't sure where this sits. And maybe it is coming from this kind of recent trend of retellings and reimagination that we're seeing. But I think I would enjoy reading classic adjacent storylines. So this is the story that we know and love, but this is the story from this person's character. This is this person's point of view. And I think the thing that's making me think about that is Hugh Jackman as Van Helsing. It was super interesting to see Dracula from that storyline. Itโs completely different to the BBC adaptation, but I liked the world. If that makes sense.
Jen - Definitely. I think that you can really appreciate the influence that the classics have had on who we are now in our TV shows and our books without necessarily needing to love the very beginning of that classic. You can say, โOh, I love what Dracula has been made into. I love the kind of vibe it's given us without needing to love Draculaโ.
Lex - Maybe this is the re-definition, if something is so culturally relevant and important, but it filters down so that somebody somewhere makes an animated version like Count Duckula. Maybe that's how you know it's a classic.
Jen - Not only Count Duckula, but Count Von Count. Do you remember that from Sesame Street?
Lex - And all he does is count.
Jen - One ah ah ah, that guy.
On that note, everyone, we have had a lovely time recording this morning, but I feel that we could stay here and chat forever. So we're going to leave you here now, but we would love to hear your favourite classics, your least favourite classics, your favourite adaptations. And if you want to have a go at redefining the word classics, send it over to us by email. You can get us at podcast@thetandemcollective.com or we are of course all over the socials as Tandem Collective UK. Goodbye everyone.
Lex - Later guys
Luce - Byee
Jen - Thanks for listening to the podcast. If you haven't already done it, pretty please could you rate, review and subscribe on whatever your preferred player is? If you would like to chat to us, get in touch at podcast@thetandemcollective.com
Jaide - As always, we're open to your feedback, so please do hit us up @tandemcollectiveuk on Instagram or using the hashtag #tandemcollectivetalks. If there's anyone content creator wise, industry superstars or your favourite author that you think we should feature in the podcast, then let us know.
