When I read the Aeneid in college, my professor was adamant about not putting it — and everything else he taught in that class — behind glass. He told us to scribble in the margins, insult it, be offended, and engage with it in whatever way possible. When a writer puts something a “masterpiece,” the reader usually interprets it as the act of something being put behind a glass — that it is impeachable, preserved, and perfect as it is and where it is.

But that doesn’t mean we have to understand the M-word in that way! Feel free to call Citizen Kane a masterpiece — I certainly think it is — but that doesn’t mean it isn’t an electric movie with flaws. Citizen Kane and The Aeneid are masterpieces because they stand to scrutiny, and offer a lot to be scrutinized, not because they belong out of reach.