

How Literary Fame Happens - samclemens
http://chronicle.com/article/How-Literary-Fame-Happens/232537/

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thatusertwo
This article doesn't really explain how fame happens.

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bjd2385
I don't think there's a reasonable explanation. While it's not totally
chaotic, I think a lot of it is just politics and reputation. After all, there
are plenty of names in programming, mathematics, physics, and even journalism,
that come to mind, and I would certainly buy their books before others to see
what all of the hype is about. Very rarely do I find myself taking chances
with 'unproven texts' that haven't been 'accepted' at-large to learn from.

What I took away was that becoming immortal in text, in the minds of following
generations, is every literary scholar's, or scholars', dream in general. We
all want to matter. We don't want to be caught up in useless things, unless
being immortal doesn't matter to you.

