What's a classic?

A lovely day was that ISSCL conference, so it was, so it was. A great line up of speakers from far and near, a brand new building, some fancy cookies and a heap of food for thoughts.
Here are a few tidbits:

• is a classic a book that keeps being retold, rewritten and generally adapted in many shapes and guises?
• is it a book to which different people bring different things and from which they take away different things?
• do we still read Shakespeare today because his themes are still relevant or is it his language that makes him 'immortal' (so far)?
• why did Mole uncork his beer?
• why don't we wear powdered wigs anymore?
• why does British (and Irish) children's literature view the countryside so positively and depict cities as hell or dangerous forest that one had better keep away from?
• why does American kidlit do exactly the opposite?
• what's in the Pollard collection in Trinity?
• what's the percentage of teachers in training who have read Where the Wild Things Are?
• who ate all the cookies?

[Thanks for the pic, Alice!]