Though I don't think that justice is the main argument against classics list.
How else can you explain them adding Mark Twain's wonderful books to their lists, given his view that "a classic is something everybody wants to have read, but no one wants to read"? Unless it's some kind of disguised jibe, but they surely can't be that petty. In fact, I think about as much of the notion of "classic" as you do, but at least the literary critics who compile those lists have a good sense of humor. “I really can't say which of the American classics you should read. they're surely worth just as much as all those books.” I've loved maybe a handful of people in my entire life, compared with tens or maybe even hundreds of books (and here I'm counting only those books I've really loved, the kind that make you happy just to look at them, that make you smile regardless of what else is happening in your life, that you always turn back to like an old friend and can remember exactly where you first "met" them - I'm sure you know just what I'm talking about). If you went purely by numbers, then books would win hands down. I can't for the life of me explain why I have the bad sense to prefer people. I hope you don't lose all confidence in me now that I've admitted that. but still, however much I twist and turn the question, I've got to opt for people in the long run. I don't know whether people mean more than books - they're definitely not nicer or funnier or more comforting.
It's a difficult choice, I've got to say.
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