University of Virginia Library

Relevant Works

When I find a good piece of work, one question I want to ask
is, "What makes it good?" People say to me, you know, "Some
works are apparently more relevant than other works." People
will say, "You can't provide good reasons," and so on. But we
all live this way, that is, we all live by making distinctions — I'd
rather do this than do that. And it seems to me important that
somebody concerned with literature face the problem as to why
it is we should make certain distinctions — why it's more
important to read "King Lear" than it is to read "Comedy of
Errors."