Posted by Kenneth Anderson:
What Five Works of Fiction Best Explain the 20th Century?
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_05_31-2009_06_06.shtml#1244225349
Name in the comments the five works of fiction that you believe best
explain - not define or symbolize or exemplify, precisely - but in
some way explain the past century to (in Brecht's phrase) 'those who
come after. I have been asked this question by some high school
students and before responding I thought I would consult the Wider
Conspiracy. Particularly if the book is not something super well-known
to an American audience, give a bit of description about when it was
written, by whom, what it's about, and why it's on your list.
To give the full Brecht quote (from memory so might be slightly wrong
and anyway a free translation), from the Three Elegies, written in
Santa Monica and set to music by Hans Eisler:
"To those who come after, When man is no longer wolf to man,
Remember us with forbearance."
Forbearance is a deeply under-appreciated moral virtue.
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