How would you build this type of list to correct for this?
It is still a massive problem within the publishing and review space. But slowly improving... lots more that could be done for non white authors as well.
Since the site is in English I think it is likely aimed at an English audience...
To be fair, fully half of the top ten books were not written in English. Non-Indo-European languages can be translated just as well as French and Russian can.
It would be interesting to see how culture impacts story/book. Russia seems to have so many amazing works of literature, but is that a function of their culture, or because of the intense focus the USA/UK put on Russia and learning their mindset during the Cold War, or because of something else?
I think it's likely less a question of focusing closer to home and more a product of how the publishing industry operates, as you suggested earlier. Would certainly be an interesting question for more investigation. If it were just down to numbers, I'd expect at least one book written in a non-Western language-- English language readers assuredly aren't quite as insular as the list would suggest.
>It would be interesting to see how culture impacts story/book. Russia seems to have so many amazing works of literature, but is that a function of their culture, or because of the intense focus the USA/UK put on Russia and learning their mindset during the Cold War, or because of something else?
This is also a really interesting question. There might even be some historians here who can chime in on it. It's common for certain countries' language and literature to become "in vogue" at different points in time (e.g. French was really popular in Russia in the 19th century, following the French Revolution). Maybe a similar effect played a role?
However, I have to point out the irony here. Every time someone complains about the lack of western representation they just pretend there isn't a southern hemisphere in the planet. The East is not composed of only Europe, Canada, and the United States.
That's to say, fight for overall diversity, not for western vs. eastern representation because that's a false dichotomy.
The boast or claim to be "The Greatest Books of All Time" lacks honesty or displays vast ignorance. The lists from which this list is compiled are intrinsically linked. This makes the title invalid, but, importantly my point, is that it does not make the resulting list invalid. Just please call the list what it is, a fun experiment.
Sure, they qualify how the list was built at the top, but titling it "The Greatest Books of All Time" serves to perpetuate the problems with who gets exposure and what styles and perspectives are considered worthy of praise. This kind of list is exactly the thing I'd have bought into as a pretentious high schooler. It's a shame to see this thinking continuing to be propagated in 2021, in my personal opinion.