"Great" Literature

As part of our first homework assignment, we were to create this blog. We were given three questions to answer at some point in our first post, but I felt that this question deserved its own forum. What makes literature great? For me, it is the title of this blog. Verisimilitude, the quality of appearing real. No matter how fantastical your story is, if you can make it feel real, you have succeeded in creating a piece of great literature.

I have read countless books by popular young adult authors, and I would never call them literature. The stories are simply too unrealistic. The emotions, the settings - there was nothing for me to relate to, nothing I connected with. On the other hand, there are books I've read that were written hundreds of years ago that till touch my heartstrings. Shakespeare...mere lines from his works can soothe the soul or inflame the senses. Jane Austen...even over a hundred years later, and in a completely different culture, we can sympathize with her characters.

Moving into this century, we have authors like Louis L'Amour, one of the greatest Western writers of all times. His stories are particularly austere, no flowery speech, no flamboyant descriptions, just story. Yet he managed to make his tales real. I read one of his books for the first time at age sixteen and loved it. My older sister was twenty, and she loved it. My youngest sister was but thirteen, and she loved it. How is it that an author can write a book that related to all of us? He made the stories real. That's all it takes - verisimilitude. Give your story the appearance of reality, and you have succeeded. Make your stories believable, and you have triumphed. Make them connect with your audience, and you have accomplished your goal.