There’s a distinct demographic in the contemporary-fiction-reading community, as can be seen in corners of Goodreads or Instagram, that demands new fiction to tell the stories of groups not covered, or supposedly unfairly covered, in that classic literature: LGBT, BIPOC, the working class, etc. In fact, they might even deny that the classics are “insightful and pleasurable” due to these social concerns.
That’s really weird. People are making all kinds of books and stories. And stories are relevant to their time. The matrix wouldn’t be written in 1900, a tale of two cities wouldn’t be written in 1200, …
It is true though that if you have a culturally diverse set of friends and are open to their experiences and opinions, a lot of “the classics” start to smell bad. Imagine being black and reading Grapes of Wrath. You might think the situation of the main characters as humorous or infantile, considering how relatively fortunate they are.
