What is great literature? Well, most will admit that it is a matter of opinion, but I feel that great literature has to be something that can withstand the test of time. Writers like Shakespeare, Clemens, Chaucer, Stevenson, Dickens, and Dumas. Their work has survived, and will probably continue to be read hundreds of years from now.

Now take a look at the literature that is popular today. Whether you're very fond of it or not, if you're honest with yourself, I fear that you will have to admit that the chances of most, or any of it, being around in a hundred years or more are slim to none.

One might say the same for the popular music. Will it endure like Mozart? Why is it that we have become a society that worships mediocrity so? Today's literature is comprised primarily of crime novels-a dime a dozen, mass-produced, widely-distributed, quickly digested, and easily forgotten. While many of these may be good, that is hardly the same as being great literature, is it? It is entertainment, and it has its place, but should not be our main literary diet.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle himself, who is practically the father of the modern detective story, whose famous character Sherlock Holmes has become an immortal figure, was worried that he might one day only be known for that work. He considered crime stories "lesser fiction," and he was right. If there's one person who has ever made it more than that, it was him, but he was certainly the exception. People do not strive for more these days. Writers do not consider their legacy, as Doyle did, the potential for immortality that accompanies their art.

So, why? What has changed so in general society that it has embraced the drastic downturn in the quality of art these days? I feel it is computers, honestly. The amazing advances recently in technology in general. The state-of-the-art game systems that we raise our children on, and our high-definition televisions which provide another form of base art-entertainment, and little else. We are an instant-gratification, one-click, instant society now. We think or care little for the future, or producing anything that lasts.

Historian Rick Atkinson to Receive 2010 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement
$100,000 Award to be Presented at October 22, 2010 Gala in Chicago CHICAGO, June 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Rick Atkinson has been selected to receive the 2010 Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.

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