u/VanishXZone

For those who are unaware, the Guardian released its list of top 100 novels of all time, as voted on by writers. I’m not really interested in litigating the list, though here is the link for reference.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/may/12/the-100-best-novels-of-all-time

The methodology of this list is that the guardian asked established writers to list their top 10 novels, and then they compiled all those lists and ranked them by how many people voted for them.

This means that, for whatever reason, modern writers are not citing Pynchon as a major influence. Now of course the Guardian has a British bias, but even considering many American novels made the cut, and many difficult novels, and many novels that push the bounds, and many modern or current novels (though less than classics).

So I guess I have two questions

why didn’t Pynchon make the list?
as a lover of Pynchon, is there something I can do to contribute to seeing his name on future lists of this sort, ways to promote the works and encourage others to engage seriously with this art?

I am in a position in which next year I get to teach a course on opera. The way the course is structured, every opera is getting 3-4 classes on it, with time for textual analysis, musical analysis, etc. . The level is advanced high school students, many of whom are vocalists.

Right now I’m debating what 10 operas to teach. I can largely teach anything I want, and will end up doing exactly that, but I’m curious what this “crowd” will suggest.

There is no requirement on history or stylistic variation, and while I generally personally value a degree of variety, that is not required as well. It could be all baroque, or all operas from the last 10 years, or really anything at all.

So tell me, you get to introduce bright eyed and eager students to 10 operas, what operas do you choose, and why?

The Guardian’s lack of Pynchon