Everyone loves to criticize lists. Just look at the furor Modern Library generated last summer. No sooner had Modern Library published its list of the best novels of the century, than the complaints began: too male, too white, too dead, too dull.

Yet there are a lot of books out there - an overwhelming 60,000 were published in America last year alone. Prefer contemporary painting? The Museum of Modern Art in New York has more than 100,000 works total in its collection. The Internet Movie Database includes some 170,000 films.

No wonder we feel overwhelmed when we go in search of a bit of culture. We want someone to tell us what to read, watch, see, hear. We want, in short, a list.

Enter the Centre 100.

After impassioned discussions, rounds of voting, and more than a little negotiation, Centre students, faculty, staff, and alumni have developed just such a list, featuring the best of the arts in the 20th century.

Four groups of "experts" in the categories of novels, movies, visual artists, and musicians named their top 25 picks. Although each committee set its own criteria, in general they considered both artistic merit and influence. Ties were not allowed, and the novels committee decided to allow only one book per author.

The results include some obvious choices - and some that frankly, in the words of one committee member, "looked a little goofy."

Citizen Kane, which won an Oscar for best screenplay in 1942, led a movie roster that ranged from the horrifying - Schindler's List (No. 7) - to the hilarious - Duck Soup (No. 23) - and wound up with student favorite Dead Poets Society at No. 25.

The Beatles (four for the space of one slot) topped the musicians list. Two others have performed at Centre. Ella Fitzgerald (No. 19) mesmerized a Newlin Hall audience in 1981, and jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis (No. 24) played here in 1995.

Stan Campbell, Centre's library director and a film and blues buff, participated in two of the committees. "The lists for music and movies turned out to be quite different from the lists for novels and artists," he says. "But that's because music and movies are so much a part of our culture. The average person on the street has an opinion about a good movie, whether it's Casablanca or Schindler's List. Many people don't know nearly so much about great novelists of past years, and we're often unfamiliar with great artists."

Who hasn't heard of Pablo Picasso, named the most important visual artist of the century? But contemporary sculptor Richard Serra (No. 24) or glass great Dale Chihuly (No. 21) are probably less well known outside the art world.

Campbell says the music list brought together an odd range of people, the result of trying to reflect the breadth of 20th-century music. "We felt the list had to be representative," he explains. "A great figure from rock, somebody from jazz, somebody from classical. But when it came down to assigning numbers, how could we compare Elvis Presley with Igor Stravinsky? The numbers got a little arbitrary."

James Joyce's impenetrable Ulysses is the No. 1 novelÑperhaps not surprising since the committee included the entire English faculty and several majors. But Dorothy Sayers' delightful academic mystery, Gaudy Night , checks in as well, at No. 25.

Although the Centre 100 project was inspired by the Modern Library list, it never aimed to take itself too seriously, and the committees had a bit of fun arguing their opinions. Milton Reigelman, for example, an English professor who chaired the novels committee, was not above intense lobbying for a favorite author. Table decorations at one of his meetings consisted of a large selection of John Le Carre novels. (The committee, however, remained unconvinced.)

"The point of the Centre 100 isn't what it proves, but what it provokes," says Mike Norris, director of communications and coordinator of the project. He's especially pleased the Centre 100 has generated not only campus debate, but also off-campus attention. "Coverage to date includes newspaper and magazine articles, ten TV news spots in Lexington and Louisville, and TV and radio talk shows," he points out.

A college-wide ballot turned up a somewhat different top-picks list, and an on-going Internet poll will develop a third list. A collection of Centre 100 memorabilia is on display at the Norton Center through May.

The official and college-wide lists will be included in a time capsule during the April 15 installation festivities for new president John A. Roush. The time capsule will be opened during Homecoming 2050.

Don't agree with the Centre 100 choices? The Web provides a chance to create a different list. Cast your vote through Dec. 31, 1999.

There's no one right answer, after all, when it's a matter of opinion.

—D.F.J.

Centrepiece
Centre College
600 West Walnut St.
Danville, KY 40422

Phone: (859) 238-5717
Fax: (859) 238-5723
E-mail: alumnews@centre.edu
or johnsond@centre.edu