Shakespeare remains a great example of the network effect in art. His works on their own are good, but not necessarily better than all other options in isolatio

Shakespeare remains a great example of the network effect in art. His works on their own are good, but not necessarily better than all other options in isolation. However, for various reasons Shakespeare became incredibly famous/popular and so many subsequent works reference Shakespearean works. Now it’s impossible to avoid Shakespeare if you want to fully understand a huge swath of English literature. Meaning people will keep putting on Shakespeare, and and others will continue creating derivative works, continuing the popularity.