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fubarobfusco comments on To like, or not to like? - Less Wrong Discussion

2 Post author: PhilGoetz 14 November 2013 02:26AM

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Comment author: fubarobfusco 14 November 2013 05:31:35AM 4 points [-]

By this logic, the tale of Gilgamesh should be the most popular story of all time, as it is possibly the most remote in time from us.

The Epic of Gilgamesh was discovered in 1853 and translated in 1870. The latest known Akkadian written records are from around the 1st century CE. So it may well have been completely unknown for seventeen centuries or more, which is a problem Shakespeare doesn't have.

Comment author: gwern 14 November 2013 03:58:15PM *  5 points [-]

1870: so it's had no less than 143 years (a century and a half) to become popular. Shakespeare was canonized in less time, and plenty of writers from 1870 or later have become immortals (eg Dickens, Tolstoy, in the novel area).

Even if you don't like that example, there are plenty of other stories from well before 0 CE.

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