Instant Classic?

song : Knights of Cydonia - Muse
mood: nerdy
book-in-hand: don't know which Haruki to get


What makes a classic? How did the works of George Orwell, Charles Dickens, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Issac Assimov, J.R.R Tolkien, Homer, Frank Herbert and William Shakespeare (to name a few literary giants, each having influenced their own genres immensely) manage to endure the test of time?

One thing is for sure - they all managed to stay relevant through out the ages. George Orwell's 1984 and Animal Farm will always be relevant if Nations exist and politicians ply their trade. Homer will always call out to the human need for epics. Assimov and Herbert practically gave birth to the Science Fiction genre and in the process, fuelled the flame of curiosity and questioned the capacity of humanity as a whole to reach a higher level.

How about modern day authors like Jostein Gaarder, Haruki Murakami, Stephen King (now, there's an author I could have given over a whole entry to. He is so ... commercial at times! But when he isn't, he's so sincere....in a horror story no less. Pet Semetary scared the hell out of me) and Paulo Coelho? Would you say their works deserve to be called "classics"?

Right now, I just finished Animal Farm and am feeling like getting a bit of Haruki Murakami for myself.