A subject I return to again and again in this blog is that of literary survival. Why do some works of literature survive from one generation to another? Take Pride and Prejudice, for example. Or Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. What makes one book or one poem great, while another that may have once been more popular fades into history?
No literary work can be properly judged by its first readers. One just cannot predict what will be considered great a hundred years from now. And what is true of books is also true of movies, paintings and even presidents.
"If you go back seventy-five years, or even fifty years, time has weeded out all manner of insubstantial art that was popular, au courant, or flashy, but it has retained works of great merit," says novelist Amor Towles, whose own works, such as A Gentleman in Moscow, may or may not be read two generations from now.
Yet the judgment of time is not perfect. The good often disappears into history along with the mediocre. As Towles says, "There are novels and symphonies and paintings of great genius that are irretrievably lost. This has happened for social reasons, political reasons, economic reasons, racial reasons — and due to plain old bad luck."
Some books are taught by literature professors, while others are not.
Some books are kept in print by publishers longer than other books.
Some nearly forgotten authors are resurrected by biographers or critics.
The possible factors are many, but Towles is right that luck has a lot to do with what — and who — is later recognized as great.
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