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The Epic of Gilgamesh is about King Gilgamesh, King of Uruk. It details events through the character's life, from the young and powerful man to the old Gilgamesh trying to combat death. As the oldest known written story, everything traces its origin to this. This was the most important piece in history. It sparked everything else. (The) -
This story follows a man named Odysseus and his crew as he goes on a voyage to attack Troy, and on his way home from the campaign against Troy. He fights monsters and gods as he’s coming home, and reaches the shores alone. This story has inspired many other famous tales. It also became a cultural icon, as the Odyssey was named after its sole survivor. It brought the Odyssey as a word to the world. (Blumberg) -
This book contains tactics for winning a war.
Many of the words of wisdom are common knowledge now. One example is “If you are careful of your men, and camp on hard ground, the army will be free from disease of every kind, and this will spell victory.” This book gave literature a much-needed introduction to war, allowing the spread of tactics and ideas through books. Without this book, generals would have no sense of war.
(The) (“The Internet Classics Archive | the Art of War by Sun Tzu”) -
This is one of Plato’s publications during the middle of his career. Instead of portraying Aristotle and his skeptical views, it portrays Plato’s hopeful views on society and the future. He claims society to be best ruled by philosopher-kings. This is one of the most popular books in philosophy ever. It developed other works of philosophy and continued branching out literature’s reach. (The) -
This book is essentially a love story between God and His fallen creation, man. It shows attempt after attempt of God trying to save His people. The last book found within its pages is Revelations, which tells of things to come. This is what made the printing press so accessible. This book was the first thing printed using it. This book is also where many morals in other stories are found. This book is also how languages traversed the world, due to translators. (The) -
This play written by Shakespeare covers a grieving prince named Hamlet. His father had recently passed, and after a time a ghost comes to Hamlet claiming to be his murdered father. Hamlet decides to behave as an insane man to test if his uncle truly did kill his father. Eventually, he kills his uncle after deciding his uncle was guilty. This story has inspired many other playwrights. Becoming a reference in several stories is another example of how this book has furthered literature. (Bevington) -
A man seeks to challenge and defy death by resurrecting a corpse. However, this experiment becomes worse than he could ever have imagined as the creature comes to life and begins tormenting its creator and the townsfolk. Many consider this to be the first horror book. It is also considered one of the first Sci-Fi books. Following this story, Mary Shelly wrote what is considered to be the first post-apocalyptic book. (Shulman) -
I, Robot is a collection of multiple short stories revolving around Humanoid robots, and the morality behind them. It introduces the three laws of robotics to the world. Before I, Robot, Sci-Fi writers treated machines as monsters without a purpose, wandering the wasteland of this world looking for things to destroy. This redefined how humanity as a total viewed the possibilities of a future with robotics. (Bauer and Lowne) -
This is the story of a man being thrust into a war in which he has no purpose being in. It shows the unjustness of war and teaches that heroes often come from the unlikeliest of places. It also includes themes of anti-industrialization. This story was one of the forefathers of high fantasy. Tolkien also created a Dwarven and Elven language for the story. That has inspired other writers to write their languages for their stories, even reaching Star Trek with Klingon. (The) -
This is a story about a teenage girl shunned by her peers and abused by her pious mother, suddenly discovering that she has powers. Eventually, things take a very dark turn for the story. Not only did this story introduce one of the most influential horror authors of all time, but it also revitalized the genre with its introduction. Because of King, horror came back into the public eye, and has continued to this day. (The) -
All in all, Literature rarely changes. It expands upon itself, in an ever-expansive root system incorporating more and more sub-genres as culture moves along. Today, literature is more free than it has ever been. Who knows, maybe the genres we view as fresh today will be seen as stale in the future. Almost as Epic's have faded out over time.
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