Quote:
Originally Posted by bill_mchale
So your judging the cultural contribution based on the effect the novel has on individuals?
I agree that it might not be possible to judge which novels will become culturally important, but judging the ones that have already become culturally significant is a bit easier. Is the novel still read? Is it imitated by other authors? Has the novel entered our cultural experience (either directly or indirectly). This is true whether you look at pulps or at books that attempt to be high literature. Clearly Jane Austin's works are culturally significant; 200 years later they are still read, still inspire other writers and adaptations. Equally clearly there are novels contemporary to Jane Austin's works that are totally forgotten. Maybe one day they will be discovered, though I rather suspect that the vast majority will never be "discovered".
Fortunately we are not dealing with the Universe here, nothing so grand as that needs to be looked at; we need only look at human culture which is a much smaller subject. Still subject to your silly platitudes I grant... but only by obviously embracing sophistry.
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Bill
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I am not judging any book, all we have are the potentials of a text towards the advancement of our culture. Every text might contain this potential.
How can we not be dealing with the universe? A book is after all a view of the universe through the eyes and mind of the author.
Would Jane Austens books have been more culturally significant if they were freely distributed at the the time of their writing? Did the printing monopoly play a role in making Ms. Austens books so culturally significant? Would Ms. Austen have written her culturally significant books if she were not able to charge people for reading them?