[HPFGU-OTChatter] Writers and other artists of 20 century which in your opinion will be remembered

[Miles]

Hi,

I think it's a general problem to judge a century that ended only a decade 
ago, I agree with Shaun in that point.

Since Alla asked not only for English or Anglo-American culture, let me 
comment on some of the names mentioned so far from my (German) point of 
view:

C.S.Lewis: I'm sorry to say that he is far, far from being as popular 
outside US/UK. I never heard of Narnia before I joined this list. The movies 
might make a difference, but that does not help the author.
Tolkien: Since I do not believe in the end of "fantasy" literature in the 
near future, Tolkien will be remembered as the father of this genre.
Rowling: Maybe. Ask again in 30 years.
George Orwell: 1984 and Animal Farm - I guess these will stay, and both are 
known worldwide
Graham Greene: As an author? I don't know. The film The Third Man will 
survive, I guess.
C.S. Forester: Actually I do not know him, so...
Terry Pratchett: Is this more than intelligent wordplay?
Rudyard Kipling: Perhaps, thanks to Disney's world wide distribution
Arthur C. Clarke. John Buchan: Who?
James Joyce: Difficult reading. Maybe something for scholars in 100 years?
Aldous Huxley: Brave new world - anything more? (I know more and love it, 
but most people only know the title of B.N.W., not even the content)
P.G. Wodehouse. Noel Coward: Who?

Tolstoy, Dostoievski: Especially Tolstoy, yes. Known worldwide, at least in 
the northern hemisphere.
Thomas Mann: Giant in German, I'm not sure about the world.
Hermann Hesse: Popular in German and in the USA, but elsewhere?

What about Agatha Christie?

Paul McCartney and John Lennon (sic!)
Picasso
Dali
Charlie Chaplin
Alfred Hitchcock

And many more...
One should not forget modern ways of artistic expression. For example I 
guess, in near future we will see great artists who construct virtual 
realities - it won't be possible to call them "painter" or "author"...

In my experience, people who see so much to be remembered in the past and 
near to nothing in their own time are quite often conservative in their 
aesthetic value system. They try to find the ways of old in the new - not 
finding it, or only finding it in those artists who copy and do not create.

Miles