Quote:
Originally Posted by JSWolf
But classic can be subjective. What some call a classic, other don't. A genre should not be subjective.
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I think the subjective aspect here is that you’re conflating the term classic with liking or not liking a book. Even though one might not like Jane Austen, for example, she’s still a classic. On the other hand, recency and lack of worth preclude a book’s being labeled classic, no matter how popular it might be.
Classic falls into the Justice Potter Stewart category of definitions, the point being not that one person gets to determine it, but that opinion coalesces. Yeah, you can fight about it at the margins, but there’s broad agreement just as with other genres. Generally speaking, classic implies passage of time and quality.