Perhaps everyone can name a few books, paintings, or plays that are now considered classics. However, few people know that this was not always the case. In fact, most of them began as inexpensive entertainment for the masses and did not attain the status of classics until several hundred years later. There are several examples. The most famous is probably the work of William Shakespeare. When Shakespeare created this work, it was simply entertainment for the general public. This is reflected in the use of humor and the fact that Shakespeare often played himself.
It was certainly not a work for high society. It was much later that people began to look at his plays in a different light and his use of English became a classic. But that was not the case in his time. Another example is painting, specifically Van Gogh. This Dutch painter was quite unpopular at the time. His paintings were also considered graffiti, and basically none of them sold. In fact, the fact that he had to re-paint old works over new ones because there were not enough canvases to go around is a testament to this. Today, however, these works hang in world-renowned galleries and are admired by thousands.
Another relatively well-known example is Elder Alexander Dumas. His “The Three Musketeers” and “The Count of Monte Cristo” began to appear in newspapers as sequels. And since he was paid by the word, it is understandable why he used such glamorous images and descriptions. For him, it was simply a way to make money. And it is only today, nearly 200 years later, that we have come to regard him as a classic. This, of course, raises the question of what works today that we regard as simple works of low quality will one day be admired by our descendants. But this shows that we should not outright condemn any of the works. For we cannot know which will be popular in the future and which will fall into disuse.