Tuesday, December 07, 2021
The Great Books
About 4,000 times in my life, I've been involved in various discussions of what the "Great Books" are. Sometimes it is a dispute about the old canon and the new, more diverse one. Other times, people just want to fight about which books are in the "great" category and which ones are not.
At times, of course, the discussion is really about what books will be assigned, and in that case, there is a natural limit to how many can be used-- I get that. But are the ones you choose really "great?"
The truth is that there are a LOT of great books. Enough to fill every class every year for a century.
The problem is those not-so-great books. The ones people wrote in a hurry on assignment, or really are about "advice," or which contain untruths. But we probably can't agree on that either...
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This is an issue I care a lot about, but I come down somewhere in the middle. A lot of the traditional greats are great for good reason, which I find as I read them. But a lot of other books by authors who have been marginalized for one reason or another have been overlooked, and I'm enjoying reading those as well.
It's a big world, and there are never enough shelves.
It's a big world, and there are never enough shelves.
Whether I consider a book great is really arbitrary. I have attempted to read many books on 'The Best of..." lists and am totally disinterested. I won't slog through for the sake of finishing as time is too short. I will move on to another book.
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