Quote:
Originally Posted by vxf
But... no. Just no.
It's a fun book. It's an astonishing world. It's a beautiful story. It made me weep.
But there are countless works from this century that have a literary value LOTR not only does not achieve, but did not even aspire to..
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But how do you define "literary value"? Isn't the fact that people still appreciate a work after a long time some indicator? Many of today's bestsellers will be forgotten in a few years, I think (and rightly so in many cases ..)
LOTR may not show the subtlest use of narrative language, but it has the most amazing treatment of different languages and cultures, it draws widely on a lot of European myths and medieval literature.
So I wouldn't deny it "literary value", though I would be hard put to choose it as the one book of the century. Or choose any book.
If influence on other works is a valid factor, then certainly LOTR is very high on the list. I think "novelty" is indeed also a factor of literary value, that's why Gullivers Travels are still interesting these days.
In the end, this how the "books of the century" lists are made - if people think a book is important and should be on the list, it gets there. Depending on the type of the list, these people are some sorts of experts or the general public (the BBC list for example show what people actually like reading, not what the "experts" think they should read).