The other day, a friend of The Annalog asked me to blog on Time’s list of the top 100 novels of all time. I didn’t, because such lists were so thoroughly both drawn up and ripped apart at the end of the millennium that there’s almost nothing left to say about them. But if you’re keeping score, I give Time’s list an 8.5 for its nice selection of classics punctuated by several pop icons that deserve canonization (Snow Crash, Watchmen). I took off a point and a half for choosing two Faulkner novels, neither of which is As I Lay Dying; and for forgetting that The Grapes of Wrath is actually a shitty book. Read Of Mice and Men. Hell, read The Red Pony.

Anyway, what brought me back to the list game was Prospect’s list of the top 100 public intellectuals. First notice that, near the bottom of the list, Cornel West’s name is spelled wrong. Second, look at number 18, Thomas Friedman and number 19, Pope Benedict XVI. Any list that includes these drastically different characters (along with Noam Chomsky and feminist/insect activist/reality star Germaine Greer) just goes to show how totally meaningless the term ‘public intellectual’ has become.

Just for fun, though, play the game: how many on the list have you heard of? Winner gets a prize. Loser gets a subscription to Prospect.

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