TheBoost said:

generalfrevious said:

What if Homer made a prequel to the Iliad and the Odyssey that was just as bad as the PT? Those two works would never have become the classics of western civilization as they are now.

I imagine that, much like 99.9% of all work created by all artists throughought time, the less than stellar works would have be relegated to the dustbin of history and we'd still like the "Illiad" and the "Odyssey."

This.

Liszt wrote a bunch of dull, boring works in his life, yet everyone somehow still remembers the awesome ones (even though there are actually little known gems scattered around everywhere).

Haydn's reputation doesn't suffer from the fact that he's best known by probably one of the dullest and blandest of his, or any compositions every written, the German national anthem.

If the OT doesn't stand the test of time just because the PT exists, it'll be proof that the "test of time" isn't ANY kind of a reliable indicator for quality.