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I suspect the answer for most people is that so-and-so (reviewer, professor, aunt, online-forum member etc.) told me it was worth my time.
that's usually (traditionally? historically?) a decent filter. A work of fiction that has stood the test of time, over generations and generations, has something to it in a way that the latest whatever thing produced today doesn't.
Just because we don't realize something's import today doesn't necessrily mean it is unimportant. I'm confident there will be works published in our era that stand the test of time. The question is, which ones?
Who knows how the English literary canon gets determined, except that its by some arcane wizadry taking place in ivory towers. Most people recoil at the concept, but the truth is, we cannot know and read everything so we need to outsource this decision making to people whose voices we trust.
This is a really important and intriguing question. I suspect the answer for most people is that so-and-so (reviewer, professor, aunt, online-forum member etc.) told me it was worth my time.
There is a sociological myth-making aspect to stories that I think is getting somewhat high-jacked by social-media and digital content creation, but isn't necessarily going anywhere. It seems to be crucial to our species.