Many of the best things in life are hard. And you wouldn't necessarily recommend them to a friend.
When you consider specific domains, often the best instances of X tend to be harder versions of X. Or, when people become familiar with many instances of X they seek out the "best" instances of X. Its natural that those best instances would be difficult for people unfamiliar with the domain.
Yup.
I think you're saying the same thing as the GP? Ulysses is a book for lit nerds, which I suppose the Modern Library board were.
Looking at the list, there's hardly any books from after mid 20th century. That makes me think that the board comprised primarily old lit nerds, who stopped reading long before voting. The list is also super ethno centric, which makes me more dubious still about the claims for "best" anything.
[1] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/12/11/opinion/cultu...
I prefer The Ginger Man to both. Glad to see it make the cut.
I've gotten the same feeling watching old movies a second time.
I would watch a movie when I was young, and it just came out. It would be "modern", maybe state of the art, and it would have an impact on me. But I was young, and easily impressed by the cliche or trite.
And then I would watch the same movie decades later. Times changed, the art has changed, casting, pacing, effects have all advanced to support the storytelling. And I am older, a different person, and maybe more aware of what is "timeless" with a little more experience under my belt.
It might be a historical deep dive, but compared to the available material our present has, some older media should drop off the list.
These are a few of my favorite things!
Seems this book is not intended for you then!