Episode 13 | What is a "Great Book?"

Not all books are created equal. Some are written for information. Some are written for entertainment. Some ought not to have been written in the first place. Yet, there are many books that have commonly been deemed "great." Many of these are novels, myths, and fairy tales of sorts. Many are philosophical treatises. Some are a combination of both. In this episode Devin and Colton raise and attempt to answer the question "What is a Great Book?" We discuss three governing criteria, which harken back to Episode 1. A "Great Book" will 1. raise deep anthropological and moral questions; 2. arrest the attention with aesthetic beauty; 3. have had significant influence on later generations, which is an inevitable corollary of the first two criteria. They also discuss the differences between Bram Stoker's Dracula and Stephanie Meyer's Twilight series as well as the differences between ancient classics and modern classics, leaning heavily on C.S. Lewis for direction.