4 ms·

Why not? They’re called classics for a reason. Should read at least some of them. Reading the best of a genre is also worth doing, along with autobiographies of

Why not? They’re called classics for a reason. Should read at least some of them. Reading the best of a genre is also worth doing, along with autobiographies of people you admire. Read Sun Tzu’s Art of War before you need to.

tw1010 8y ago
People who ask "why read the classics" might not want to spend their time on something just because an authority (who decided what the classics are, and what ulterior motives did they have?) said that's what they are, or because it's good in-group signaling. For these people, addressing their concerns and making clear that there's value in reading classics beyond the potential problems, is a necessity.
- adiusmus 8y ago
  I’m not sure why I would particularly need to address someone’s concerns. I’m not selling them a book nor am I forcing my choice of what is good on someone else. Take it or leave it. I’d say that is an issue which a particular person has with authority in general. “Who decided it was a classic” and “what makes them so special” and “what right do they have to impose their choice on me” are all questions that someone should answer for themselves. Likely some deep introspection about their relationship with authority is possibly required. I’m not sure. If you ask someone what is the best book to read and they reply you now have someone’s preference for a great book rather than a mediocre one. That in essence is how a classic is determined, but at larger scale. Lots of people asked and a lot of people answered. Consensus formed and spread. I’m fairly sure I can ask a film buff what classic movies I should watch and if I asked a lot of film buffs, some movies would begin to bubble up as being seen as commonly known classics. Others could be seen as just popular. I don’t think that would be a surprising outcome. I don’t think it needs to be much more complicated than that.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- crpatino 8y ago
  It is true that in this age when a tiny minority of the population has read any of the Classics, those are of limited value. And yes, the Classics had to be compiled by an authority, like every other canon in any area of human knowledge. The problem with the concerns of this "free-thinking" people derive from the purpose of having a canon in the first place. The purpose of the Classics, back in the day when they were still a canon, was twofold. First, on the individual level, was to give you a sampler of different genres so you could figure out what you like or what you do not. Today, a precoucious kid might find a copy of Asimov's Foundation and fall in love with Science-Fiction, which is totally OK. But then he'll go and read every futurist work, including a big portion of utterly forgetable crap (most published works in every genre are crap anyways) and deciding he does not like to read after all. Besides, he will deprive himself of all the other genres that might or might not have been quite enjoyable for him. But the second and main purpose of the Classics is to serve as a common ground of all the people that have a modicum of education (meaning, everyone with at least a 2 year college degree, and many with no degree at all). And it is because there was an authority that enforced the reading of this canon that each generation could rely on their peer having a bunch of prepackaged ideas to draw uppon; not so that everyone would think the exact same thoughts, but so that everyone's unike thoughts would have anchor points and structural patterns that facilitate exchange of ideas between each other. In today's world, though, the same gap is filled by pop-culture. There's still a hierachy that decides what movies and TV shows will everyone be expected so see, and everyone is free to indulge as little or as much as they want in other, more obscure/specialized works that they will find because they happened to enjoy the flagship work in that genre that happens to form part of the common canon. Personally, I do not see anything inherently worse in having a bunch of academics decide what books should I read vs a bunch of Hollywoood execs decide what movies should I watch. But the point is that a hundred years ago, a person that did not know why Lady MacBeth washed her hands would come out exactly as boorish as someone who would draw a blank face when confronted with the phrase "the Light side of the Force".

tw1010 8y ago

People who ask "why read the classics" might not want to spend their time on something just because an authority (who decided what the classics are, and what ulterior motives did they have?) said that's what they are, or because it's good in-group signaling. For these people, addressing their concerns and making clear that there's value in reading classics beyond the potential problems, is a necessity.

adiusmus 8y ago
I’m not sure why I would particularly need to address someone’s concerns. I’m not selling them a book nor am I forcing my choice of what is good on someone else. Take it or leave it. I’d say that is an issue which a particular person has with authority in general. “Who decided it was a classic” and “what makes them so special” and “what right do they have to impose their choice on me” are all questions that someone should answer for themselves. Likely some deep introspection about their relationship with authority is possibly required. I’m not sure. If you ask someone what is the best book to read and they reply you now have someone’s preference for a great book rather than a mediocre one. That in essence is how a classic is determined, but at larger scale. Lots of people asked and a lot of people answered. Consensus formed and spread. I’m fairly sure I can ask a film buff what classic movies I should watch and if I asked a lot of film buffs, some movies would begin to bubble up as being seen as commonly known classics. Others could be seen as just popular. I don’t think that would be a surprising outcome. I don’t think it needs to be much more complicated than that.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
crpatino 8y ago
It is true that in this age when a tiny minority of the population has read any of the Classics, those are of limited value. And yes, the Classics had to be compiled by an authority, like every other canon in any area of human knowledge. The problem with the concerns of this "free-thinking" people derive from the purpose of having a canon in the first place. The purpose of the Classics, back in the day when they were still a canon, was twofold. First, on the individual level, was to give you a sampler of different genres so you could figure out what you like or what you do not. Today, a precoucious kid might find a copy of Asimov's Foundation and fall in love with Science-Fiction, which is totally OK. But then he'll go and read every futurist work, including a big portion of utterly forgetable crap (most published works in every genre are crap anyways) and deciding he does not like to read after all. Besides, he will deprive himself of all the other genres that might or might not have been quite enjoyable for him. But the second and main purpose of the Classics is to serve as a common ground of all the people that have a modicum of education (meaning, everyone with at least a 2 year college degree, and many with no degree at all). And it is because there was an authority that enforced the reading of this canon that each generation could rely on their peer having a bunch of prepackaged ideas to draw uppon; not so that everyone would think the exact same thoughts, but so that everyone's unike thoughts would have anchor points and structural patterns that facilitate exchange of ideas between each other. In today's world, though, the same gap is filled by pop-culture. There's still a hierachy that decides what movies and TV shows will everyone be expected so see, and everyone is free to indulge as little or as much as they want in other, more obscure/specialized works that they will find because they happened to enjoy the flagship work in that genre that happens to form part of the common canon. Personally, I do not see anything inherently worse in having a bunch of academics decide what books should I read vs a bunch of Hollywoood execs decide what movies should I watch. But the point is that a hundred years ago, a person that did not know why Lady MacBeth washed her hands would come out exactly as boorish as someone who would draw a blank face when confronted with the phrase "the Light side of the Force".