Great Literature

What makes great literature great? For that matter, what makes it literature? C.S. Lewis in High and Low Brows makes the point that these are not the same thing, but he does not show what either of them are. (I am using 'great' in the sense in which he used 'good'; as a mark of objective quality, not morality or individual value.) I did a thorough study of this point, by skimming through my books-read list looking for patterns. I found that great literature is 1) long and digressive ("Southwell's work is too small and too little varied for greatness: but it is choice, very winning, and highly original" -Lewis; the shorter a book the less directly it can state its main point (thus poetry)); 2) individual (not part of a series by the author or closely similar to other works); 3) serious (even farces and satires take the core issue seriously); 4) pointed (doesn't try to say too much, but circles one core idea); 5) inevitable, as if things could not have fallen out any other way (no loose ends); 6) portrays, is representative of, or is a response to, the spirit of its age (zeitgeist); 7) symbolical (means more than it says/repays study/invites interpretation) 8) deep ("a story isn't any good unless it resists paraphrase, unless it hangs on and expands in the mind" -O'Connor; great books make poor aphorisms - the better the book, the less value is carried by a quote out of context). Great writers a) care more for their subject and for their story as story than they do for its form or plot; b) appeal to a different emotion than poor writers (e.g. titillation vs sympathy).