Define Classic

[GryphonMage]

What makes a novel a classic? Is it the content? The topic? When it was written? Who is was written by? Historical context?

And then there is the concept of the modern classic like books by Hunter S. Thompson (Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas) or Kurt Vonnegut. Are these true classics? Or are they only classics to the generation they were written for? In a hundred years will Thompson be remembered the way we remember Dickens?

And are there any authors now that you think have the staying power to become classics?

[Spades]

Well, if Dickens is considered a classic then quality is obviously not a requirement. I think a classic is basically anything that people read long after people should have stopped reading it. What I mean is, there are lots of books published, and they will pretty much all be read by somebody. The classics are the books people will come back to later, and pick out of all the other books they have read before.

In other words, the classics are the books that are enduringly popular. I think it's subjective, for better or worse.

[GryphonMage]

Ah subjectivity.The greatest of all evils.


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just kidding.


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kind of.