There are so many underappreciated books in the literary universe that a lifetime dedicated to spotlighting them would uncover perhaps 1% of worthy works. Many beautiful books, especially those from hundreds or thousands of years ago, have undoubtely vanished without a trace, the last manuscript perhaps burning with the Great Library Of Alexandria or more likely simply disintegrating to dust in an abandoned city somewhere. A series of Sunday essays, such as I plan this to be, may briefly touch upon 0.1% of those works that yet live.

So what’s the point?

Throughout literary history, great works have gone underappreciated at the time of their publication and beyond, sometimes for decades or even centuries. If not for the efforts of those who re-discovered these beautiful books and worked to bring them to a wider audience, Blake’s poetry, Kafka’s fiction, and many more works wouldn’t have enriched millions of people.

Even if only a few people end up reading the books I recommend in this series, each work I’ll spotlight has the potential to provide solace to those few readers who still appreciate literature as an art form.

Such works are now quite rare when the American literary establishment perpetrates the delusional idea that literary should be used for social criticism in a society that no longer reads literature in sufficient numbers for such criticism to have any measurable effect.

Even if Americans did still read contemporary literature, why shoehorn social criticisms into fiction, leading inevitably to contrived works that are a vehicle for idealogy rather than beautiful works with the unique power to bring joy to all readers? Sure, reading a book that expresses or seems to express an ideaology you happen to agree with can help you feel more secure in whatever worldview helps you sleep at night. But why leech the lifeblood out of fiction? If you’d like to express an ideology, that’s what polemical essays (like this one) are for.

The prevailing approach of the American literary establishment thus leads to the over-appreciation of bland books which 1. agree with its current political beliefs (progressivism, at the time of writing) and/or 2. which are written by those associated with the university creative writing programs, tedious periodicals, and gun-shy publishers that provide the latticework for the monolith.

Preferably both, with a share of the acclaim reserved for books by authors of color which portray white people as inherently racist. These efforts are not, as the white people behind them proclaim, intended to “celebrate diversity.” Instead, this is simply a self-serving attempt to assuage their immense racial guilt.

Recognition by the monolith is intended as much to promote acceptable books as it is to dissuade people from reading any books outside its structure. It seems that the efforts to “celebrate diversity” are restricted to the diversity of skin pigmentation, rather than the diversity of thought.

Sure, people who want to read literature can still find books one isn’t “supposed” to read on Amazon or on the shelves of the local bookstore (for those that still have a local bookstore). But where to start? The bookstore will stock hundreds of literary works, and Amazon many thousands.

Realistically, a hypothetical 21st century American is going to be doing a bit of googling and clicking on the listings that look the most authoritative. Anybody, such as myself, can start a blog and make a list. Some random person on the Internet probably isn’t a real expert right? But the New York Times or the New Yorker…

On the other hand, our hypothetical reader has heard about something called “media bias.” Maybe major publications really aren’t better than some guy’s blog. There was one that had a striking name – Neon Origami? What’s that about?

If this sounds familiar, stay tuned. I’m going to give you the opportunity to have beautiful experiences that you would otherwise have missed.

In the next essay in this series, I’ll lay out a semi-scientific system to identify potentially underrated literary works. I could name a few off the top of my head, but I don’t claim to have an encyclopedic knowledge of literature. Of course, these works may be more widely acclaimed than I think. Perhaps I simply haven’t heard anyone talking about them.

There is, however, enough factual info on the Internet to fill a million literary encyclopedias. The trick is knowing how to find it and synthesize it. Doing so just may help me double the scope of this series to touch 0.2% of the underappreciated works in the literary universe. Some of these books will be obscure, some may be well-known but misunderstood and misread.

I can’t promise you’ll enjoy every book I recommend. However, I think readers who’re hungry for art that beautifully explores universal aspects of the human condition will at least appreciate each experience. If you’re interested in literature that helps you feel better about yourself, rather than works that connect you to humanity, I’d recommend self-help books instead of the literary works piled ad infinitum in the monolith.