“Sub­merge” from “The Great Works” empha­sizes the sig­nif­i­cance and impact of delib­er­ate­ly choos­ing to immerse one­self in high-qual­i­ty artis­tic cre­ations across dif­fer­ent medi­ums. It advo­cates for mak­ing a con­scious deci­sion to expand one’s aware­ness by active­ly seek­ing beau­ty, depth, and learn­ing through engage­ment with the world’s great­est works—be it lit­er­a­ture, film, paint­ings, or archi­tec­ture. The text does not con­form to a sta­t­ic def­i­n­i­tion of the canon of great works; instead, it acknowl­edges that great­ness is sub­jec­tive and evolves over time and space. How­ev­er, the under­ly­ing prin­ci­ple is clear: expo­sure to excep­tion­al art invites per­son­al growth and opens path­ways to new pos­si­bil­i­ties.

The chap­ter out­lines a prac­tice of selec­tion, sug­gest­ing that if one were to replace dai­ly news con­sump­tion with read­ing clas­sic lit­er­a­ture for a year, the indi­vid­u­al’s abil­i­ty to rec­og­nize and appre­ci­ate qual­i­ty would be sig­nif­i­cant­ly refined. This con­cept extends beyond art; it also applies to the choice of com­pan­ions, con­ver­sa­tions, and even thoughts. Each deci­sion we make influ­ences our capa­bil­i­ty to dis­cern lev­els of qual­i­ty, ulti­mate­ly guid­ing us toward what is tru­ly deserv­ing of our lim­it­ed time and atten­tion in a world sat­u­rat­ed with infor­ma­tion.

“Sub­merge” isn’t just a call to appre­ci­ate art; it’s a phi­los­o­phy for liv­ing with inten­tion. By care­ful­ly curat­ing our expe­ri­ences and the con­tent we con­sume, we cul­ti­vate our taste and sen­si­tiv­i­ty towards the fin­er things in life, dis­tin­guish­ing good from very good, and very good from great. The chap­ter posits that through this prac­tice, not only do we enrich our per­son­al expe­ri­ences, but we also enhance our over­all qual­i­ty of life by focus­ing on what tru­ly mat­ters and bring­ing a deep­er sense of mean­ing and sat­is­fac­tion into our dai­ly exis­tence.