(1) And if you understood that reference right away, you got the point!
But the truth is, that makes Harry Potter and Game of Thrones much more of a "classic" than Shakespeare.
Shared cultural context is something I believe we're losing anyway, or at least it's not scaling well with population size and civilization - these days they're just so many books being published, along with movies and TV series, that it's increasingly difficult to find things you've both read/watched with random people. Schools in a given country are forcing the same set of literature on people partly in order to ensure a shared cultural context, but as we all know (and as is discussed elsewhere in this comment thread), this only makes people know the titles but not read the books themselves.
Still, there's probably some fascinating anthropology to be had in the idea of fandom as a new form of nationality.
They say dual citizenship is possible but I'd steer well clear of the dmz between Trek and Wars.
I agree. If you think of it, meeting people who identify more with a fictional culture from a TV show more than with any existing one, that's... something new, I think. Can't think of any analogue in past periods in history.
> They say dual citizenship is possible but I'd steer well clear of the dmz between Trek and Wars.
Been there, can confirm. Not pretty :).
Religion, Christianity in particular, seems a close analog.
As much as I love Star Trek (particularly TNG), I'd say it's far, far less popular among folks in their early 20s these days than the classics. Probably why they're called classics :)