Quote:
Originally Posted by Worldwalker
There has never been a consensus about what is great literature and what is dreck.
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To say that there has been no consensus is to say that there aren't books that have been upheld over time as exemplars of writing worth studying and multitudes that aren't worthy of acknowledgement at all. And that isn't true.
Determining dreck from literature is no different than separating great musci from poor music, great plays from lousy plays, classic movies from movies best forgotten, great actors from wanna-be has-beens, great baseball players from who?, etc. We do it every day and we do it with the aid and guidance of "experts" and by building consensus. Why are books any different?
True not everyone agrees with the choices and there are always competing lists, but even among competing lists there is often significant overlap, giving further credence to the idea that there is a distinction between dreck and great that people from all strata recognize.