In Ecclesiastes we read: That thing that has been, it’s that which will be; and that which is done is that which will be done and that there’s nothing new under the sun. Since brief and assertive remarks that contain truth often go unattended, they are worth revisiting.
Without pretending to be an analytical, or even less an academic, I’d simply like to elucidate these truths. First, that nature is already there, created, and available, and from which ‘new’ things may be born. Second, that deeds which have been done in the past will repeat in the future. He we have a juxtaposition of nature and man. The conclusion that there’s nothing new under the sun, is then truthful.
In Petronius’ Satyricon we find the character Trimalchio who is as immensely wealthy as he is vastly ignorant; or as poor in taste and education as he is rich in orgies and luxury. When the vulgar and former slave Trimalchio tells his guests that Agamemnon and not Paris elopes with Helen, and that Hannibal fought in the siege of Troy we know we are reading a satire.
And given the plots, subplots, and language, we could say that Petronius was really toying with the invention of a new genre-the novel. When we read Satyricon, we get the feeling that we are reading a picaresque novel, or something in the vein of Don Quixote, which is filled with contrived adventures. Petronius was not writing autobiography or factual adventures that could be ascribed to known people in Nero’s court; despite this, he still got in trouble and was forced to commit suicide.
Petronius intended to write a satire of the Neronian times; one can say that the Satyricon is a satire of manners. Through the understanding of manners future generations come to understand history, and through history the core of the human heart. In this context, Jane Austen -whose novels are a satires of her times and society- then wrote about a ‘thing that has been.’
Scott Fitzgerald in his novel The Great Gatsby wrote about Jay Gatsby, who, to tell the truth was an early 20th century Trimalchio-Gatsby was really a Trimalchio copycat. Rich and given to orgies and extravagant parties, Gatsby was a ‘thing that has been.’ The merit of Fitzgerald’s novel doesn’t lay in originality, nor in a lofty theme, but in the manners he describes. Through the manners of the rich and the aspirations of the poor future generations will understand the ‘Roaring Twenties,’ with all its cast of characters: floppers, bootleggers, gangsters, and the idle rich.
In addition, In Jay Gatsby we see the poor boy that leaves town to make his own fortune in order to return wealthy, successful, triumphant, and determined to regain a lost love. When we read about Jay Gatsby’s machinations to regain the love of Daisy Buchanan, we feel that has already been done.
Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights captivated her readers with the foundling Healthcliff, who returns -rich and vengeful to regain his childhood sweetheart Catherine Earnshaw.
Aspiring writers will find many books that intend to teach how to write a novel (original novels), or to give story writing tips; all that is willing good, but what we have to keep in mind is that if we don’t read the literature of the past, we are bound to re-invent the wheel. Students who are assigned to write term papers or essays about literary works, be aware of this recommendation: in the works of fiction themselves you will find plenty of essay writing tips. In Satyricon fragment we find not only poetry and essayist prose, but also fiction.
To be original is the curse of the artist, for search as mightily as they might, Ecclesiastes will always be there with his dictum: There’s really nothing new under the sun.