Are there any contemporary writers who might live on in the Pantheon of greatness alongside the likes of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickens, Dostoyevsky, etc.? If so, who are they? Explain why their greatness transcends time and place. If not, why not? Why doesn't their work transcend our time?
I agree with Munjeera, especially since your tag is literature, that you stick to literature in answering this question. This alone is already a rich and difficult question to broach, but if adding aesthetics into the equation, the topic deems nearly impossible to adequately answer. – danielle5778 years ago
Must this writer begin with the assumption that such a thing is possible? I think achieving canonical "greatness" requires a considerable degree of cultural concentration, a society with a sure sense of its own aesthetics. No doubt, this is true somewhere in the world. But where? – TKing8 years ago
Good point, TKing. Would you please request a revision so I could please change it? – Tigey8 years ago
Nice reworking of this topic. Samson Rushdie comes to mind, Thomas Pynchon, David Foster Wallace, Charles Bukowski, one of my personal favorites--Michael Cunningham, and I consider myself very difficult to please. Ouch, just realized I didn't mention one female writer!! I know people are going to read this--please note, quick, incomplete list, briefly off the top of my head--and think I'm insane by those I mentioned, and those I've forgotten. – danielle5778 years ago
Fantastic topic. However, for the writer, it might be worth mentioning for clarity that the placing of contemporary writers in an established literary 'canon' is something that does not necessarily equate with their current popularity/how many books they've sold? See as examples: Austen, Keats, Melville. – lucyviolets8 years ago
