# Which 20th Century books wil be widely read in 300 years? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 31, 2009, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865 "2009-07-31T14:13:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/61 "2009-08-02T02:46:04Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > That is a great pick. I’ll probably show the movie to my kids to help them understand what my grandparents’ lives were like. Excellent. 🙂 This forum requires that you wait 60 seconds between posts. Please try again in 6 seconds. ---
**Author:** ![devilsknew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4da419/32.png) [@devilsknew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/devilsknew)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/62 "2009-08-02T03:01:12Z")
If Hollywood, big corporate, philosophy, (flash and cash) continues iindefinitely and further seeps into publishing we will just see books recycled, neverending. Coming this Fall… House of Leaves, the serial. Vol. Vl!!! ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/63 "2009-08-02T03:47:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > Ya know, the list will probably largely be chosen by college professors, as “20th Century Lit” classes will probably be common and even required for certain degrees. Yes, or at least teachers at some level will be the ones making it happen. Shakespeare wouldn’t be well known if every kid in every English-language school weren’t taught that he was the greatest writer in English ever. I loved _Grapes of Wrath_, but the cynic in me says it’s too hard and long. _Of Mice and Men_ will be assigned (just like in my high school we got _Billy Budd_ when _Moby Dick_ is the good one, or we got _The Pearl_ because _Grapes of Wrath_ and _East of Eden_ are too long, and have dirty stuff, and _Of Mice and Men_ is too violent). ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/64 "2009-08-02T04:08:09Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > He fellates with great allacrity. The genre fellates. > He has become so popular among those who don’t know what “As Chaucer is, shall Dryden be” means that his editors are afraid to chide him, and he republishes books hundreds of pages longer than the original crap. Agreed, he suffers from the same lack of editorial balls that plagues **J K Rowling** ’s later Harry books. But historically speaking, aren’t artists known for their best or most influential stuff? His later abortions will be forgotten, but his early stuff was quality crowd-pleasing fare. Hell, I’ve had three English teachers/professors cite his book _ **On Writing** _ as a must-read for aspiring writers. King produces a lot of crap, but when he feels like it, the man can _write_. He’s not merely limited to the horror tales that he favors most of the time; for instance, _ **Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption** _ is a fantastic story whose popularity was far eclipsed by the movie version. The man does not pen high literature, but he’s a cultural phenomenon who has produced a crapton of stories, a lot of which have spoken to a shitton of people. Four movie adaptations of his books are in the IMDB Top 250, something which I’m pretty sure no other novelist can boast, and this includes the #1 spot for years. That’s not saying OMG HE’S THE BEST AUTHOR EVER (hell, I wouldn’t even put him on my top 20 list), but that he’s a uniquely significant one, and one that future generations may indeed pay attention to. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/65 "2009-08-02T04:14:38Z")
> [@Windwalker](#): > > Agreed, he suffers from the same lack of editorial balls that plagues **J K Rowling** ’s later Harry books. But historically speaking, aren’t artists known for their best or most influential stuff? His later abortions will be forgotten, but his early stuff was quality crowd-pleasing fare. Hell, I’ve had three English teachers/professors cite his book _ **On Writing** _ as a must-read for aspiring writers. King produces a lot of crap, but when he feels like it, the man can _write_. He’s not merely limited to the horror tales that he favors most of the time; for instance, _ **Rita Hayworth & The Shawshank Redemption** _ is a fantastic story whose popularity was far eclipsed by the movie version. I haven’t read _The Body_, but if it’s half as good as _Stand By Me_ then he gets a lifetime pass from me to write all the fellatory crap he wants. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/66 "2009-08-02T04:26:16Z")
The best characters are not created by the best writers, unfortunately. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond will endure in popularity. And I think future generations will have a much more positive assessment of JK Rowling than these boards have. ---
**Author:** ![Windwalker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/5e9695/32.png) [@Windwalker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Windwalker)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/67 "2009-08-02T05:24:56Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > The best characters are not created by the best writers, unfortunately. Tarzan, Sherlock Holmes and James Bond will endure in popularity. > > And I think future generations will have a much more positive assessment of JK Rowling than these boards have. **Rowling** ’s world is inspiring enough to stand the test of time, but I’m not sure if her writing is. But then again, many classics seem really badly written to me (_David Copperfield_, for one), so I definitely wouldn’t rule the _Potter_ books out. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/68 "2009-08-02T06:48:04Z")
> [@Krokodil](#): > > And I think future generations will have a much more positive assessment of JK Rowling than these boards have. I don’t, and partly because she seems to get an awful lot of acclaim around here (in addition to some scorn, I admit.) I think at least part of her success was a marketing and right-time, right-place kind of thing. She wrote a kids’ book and then aged the characters at roughly the same pace her target audience aged. Brilliant, really. But will it stand the test of time? I personally think not. There are of course outliers, but HP, at its core, is very much a generational phenomenon, and I think it will fade a lot faster than people are expecting it to. In 30 years I think high school kids will still be reading Lord of the Rings, but Harry Potter, if acknowledged at all, will probably be regarded very lowly. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/69 "2009-08-02T23:37:30Z")
\*Lord of the Rings Of Mice and Men The Maltese Falcon The Murder of Roger Ackroyd \*and many other mysteries. As Raymond Chandler noted in “The Simple Art of Murder,” the things that make mysteries popular are not going out of style. I predict \*I, Robot \*by Isaac Asimov will continue to be read, not so much as great literature, but because his ideas of the Three Laws of Robotics will be influential and relevant as robotics advances as a science I also predict that W.B. Yeats will continue to be read. Modesty almost forbids me from mentioning it, but I hope to have my first novel finished soon. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/5f8ce5/32.png) [@The\_Peyote\_Coyote](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Peyote_Coyote)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2009, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/70 "2009-08-02T23:38:47Z")
Also, Sherlock Holmes wasn’t a 20th-Century creation. His first story appeared in something like 1888. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [August 3, 2009, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865/71 "2009-08-03T09:32:44Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I don’t, and partly because she seems to get an awful lot of acclaim around here (in addition to some scorn, I admit.) I think at least part of her success was a marketing and right-time, right-place kind of thing. She wrote a kids’ book and then aged the characters at roughly the same pace her target audience aged. Brilliant, really. But will it stand the test of time? I personally think not. Marvel Comics did essentially the same thing during the 1960s, particularly with **Fantastic Four** and **Spider-Man**. Once they realized they weren’t going out of business in 1970, this stopped dead. I think these characters would have been much more highly regarded if they’d ceased publication when Ditko and Kirby quit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-20th-century-books-wil-be-widely-read-in-300-years/504865.md?page=3)