The Greeks built up their culture from the two Homeric poems. Hence our own culture was built up from them. That’s fact and can’t be ignored in the interest of fairness to other writers. And I don’t make a distinction between ‘fun’ and ‘attentive study’. Chaucer was taught in my high school.
But Aaron Copland talked critically about ‘Masterpiece Syndrome’ - a mentality that only the very finest of the finest is worthy of our attention...hence pretty much only three composers from 1750-1810 get played (Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven). The others from that era have become footnotes (C.P.E. Bach, Gluck, Clementi). Even Haydn has been relegated to also ran status because of how Mozart and Beethoven have been deified. He’s not played nearly as much as he should be.
Well the Greeks built up their culture from the guys wandering around telling tales, some of which were the Homeric tales told the Homeric way. But history says it was really kind of like TV, especially the early days when the tapes were overwritten. We remember the stuff good enough for somebody to save the tape, but there was a whole lot of other crap out there.
Oh there’s a definitely difference between “fun” and “getting it beaten into you by an English teacher who insists all calling him ‘The Bard’”. One of the things school excels at is sucking the fun out of things, just by turning it into an assignment it immediately stops being fun. They could bring it back though, if they would stop the Bard worship, teach these things as the low entertainment they were, point out that they were basically Happy Days, draw that line of continuity from his king plays to the modern biopic. There’s a way to say “yes these are very well written, but they’re still entertainment, and the audience was probably drunk”. Throw a little shade at Shakespeare, dig up some bad reviews from the time period. Some of the best discussions I’ve ever had about great TV focused on the bad episodes, or at least the bad aspects of good episodes (nothing is perfect) a little bit of bubble bursting criticism is good for any subject.
I’m with Copland. I like the continuity of the world. The less than very best is usually a lot more interesting, if only because they were keeping the art alive in between the masters.