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.