Posted by pabbott on April 23, 2000 at 07:32:31
In Reply to: Re: Literary canon posted by Maglor on April 22, 2000 at 16:45:22:
That Shakespeare was popular in his day doesn't seem to be disputed. Whether he was considered to be a great writer in the literary sense is another question entirely. Actually, the standards by which literature were judged then was in many ways different from today. Snobbery played a role too. Shakespeare came from a fairly humble background (provincial middle-class) and that would tell against him as well. To take a modern example (and I hope I don't offend too many people). I love the works of Tom Clancy, read just about every one of them. I don't consider them to be great literature though; neither does Tom Clancy. It seems very doubtful that people will be reading his stuff fifty years from now. With the possible exception of Hunt for Red October, the stuff he wrote in the 1980s already seems dated. LOTR does seem to hold up though. Like many who contribute to this board, I have read and re-read it, probably more than I should. While one can pick out flaws in it, for instance the excessive use of deus ex machina, the overall quality is very, very high. A hundred years hence people will probably still enjoy it. And if they don't, the loss will be theirs' not mine. My life has been made richer by the experience of reading it, and that is no small thing.
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