Today while I was reading "Harry Potter and Philosophy" for the term paper essay, I came across this passage in the introduction:
"British pilosopher Bertrand Russell once claimed that, given the general silliness of mankind, a view's popularity is sure evidence of its falsehood. Clearly Russell overstated the case. Something's popularity is decisive evidence of neither its truth nor falsehood, neither its value nor worthlessness."
It goes on to say that since something is popular, it has clearly "struck a chord of some sort."
This reminded me of the discussion we had about Anne Bradstreet a few days ago and what determines what belongs in an important collection. I definitely agree with this quote, but understand where Russell is coming from. The majority of people are not scholars, and therefore if something is popular with a majority it doesn't mean it is a classic work or has heavy literary weight. However, it must have some sort of significance or value to society for being so popular. I think if a work is extremely popular, that doesn't mean it should be immediately disregarded for inclusion OR immediately included in such a collection. It just means that it should definitely be considered. Thoughts?
-Alexa
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I agree. The popularity should be just one factor in considering a work's worthiness of being classical. It's the same with music. Both really popular songs and really unpopular songs and everything between should all be considered when evaluating its worth. One song or book is not automatically going to be classic based solely on the fact that it is a bestseller and widely liked. Looking at the iTunes top 10 songs, I hope those songs won't be considered classic. However, the book's or song's popularity could be one reason along with its language, cohesiveness, grammar, symbolism, or lyrics, rhythm, etc.
ReplyDelete-- tori
I think that popularity is a fairly important factor when measuring the impact of a work. A work doesn't need to have any significant weight to make an impact on a population. These works deserve to be studied, if only to discover what hold they have over the general public. While they may never be considered "classics" or even very well written, it's important that public opinion be factored into the decision of choosing novels to represent a particular time period.
ReplyDelete-Tara
I feel that popularity should definitely be considered when evaluating literature and determining its significance. However, considering the vast majority of deciding what literature is included in a canon is done by professors and academics, I think its fair to say that popularity is hardly the most important factor.
ReplyDelete-Bryce C.
Popularity could be a factor when evaluating literature but it would be a difficult source to rely on, since there isn't a set rubric. Opinion sure can be a factor of evaluation but there must be other factors that are factual and not so opinion-based.
ReplyDelete-Joanne