You don’t think imbibing the best of Western Culture is important? What
I have personally found some of the “best” writers to be shallow and dull.
I think literature should be read for enjoyment and historical reference.
For me, writers are merely talented humans. There works are their art. I don’t look to them for the meaning of life.
If I am looking for true meaning, I go to God.
But who says it’s the “best” of Western Culture? If you don’t like something you don’t like it, there’s no reason to suffer through it just because the literati say it’s “the best”. Even if it is the best that doesn’t mean you’ll like it. A friend of mine’s mom makes the best liver pate in the city, or so folks who like liver pate say, I tried it once, tasted like liver pate, for my pallet that’s not a compliment, I think liver pate is gross. The literati worship “Howl”, to me it’s just more beat poetry, which again doesn’t agree with my pallet, so while it very well might be “the best” that doesn’t mean I should read it.