the battle of the ancients and the moderns
It is not hard to understand Alexander Pope's concern about the decline of classics. In fact, this worry is ongoing and expanding, to the decline of literature in general. We were standing in front of the English Department office door, all quite amused by the heading of a course description: Sex and the City--A course on London Literature in the 18th century. What do we make of this? While making wry comments, inevitably, there's the need to combine pop culture with classics to make it more appealing, or at least not an antidote for insomnia. Just like one of Tate Britain's exhibition caption reads: The It Girls--was actually an 18th century Gainsborough painting display. These are to prove that classics, or literature is not dated. It can be trendy and fashionable, like the GQ, Time Out magazines you regularly read.
When the quarrel broke out in the late 17th century, people were excited by the new possibility of empirical science, mechanical skills, and 'technology' that was to lead the society. Humanistic values that derived from Greek and Roman literature, and the skill to read classical texts seemed no longer beneficial to our physical world. How can one feed on virtue, aesthetic taste, and epics? Ancient structures and standards became more and more impractical. Yet without the Renaissance cultural structure and standard, Pope saw a world that has lost its sense of classical beauty and dignity.
I suggest that the line could be blurred. Today there are computer programmers who write plays, and Lawyers who enjoy Homer. It is the openmindedness that leave you mesmerised by Chinese Opera and 'Silent Bob and Jake' comics. A guy told me once what type of building he would like to design, he said, "An old one--because it has more character."
The fascination of Renaissance and Early Modern is that it involves both the old and the new.