Classics No More

The Second Pass has done something drastic: they have picked out several "classics," and decided that they're really not worth all that they're built up to be. Ballsy, but often necessary; as times chance, contexts move, and (from what I remember; I've only read a couple on the list), many of those books strike emotional chords with readers at the time, taking broad strokes at society and humanity in charged prose, but that won't give them lasting power. I could never imagine Kerouac continuing to have the resonance he's enjoyed for much longer; his stuff is so rooted in the time of the 50s and 60s, it was bound to lose relevance as time moved on. Via.