Watershed
A defining entry in the Top 100 Books. Sitting at number 71, Watershed earned its place through a combination of craft, context, and consensus among the twenty-four editors who maintain this list. The companions immediately above and below it on this ranking are worth reading in the same sitting.
Position in the list
About this entry
A defining entry in the Top 100 Books. Sitting at number 71, Watershed earned its place through a combination of craft, context, and consensus among the twenty-four editors who maintain this list. The companions immediately above and below it on this ranking are worth reading in the same sitting. The editors’ note placed it here on the basis of three criteria: durability across re-reads (or re-watches, or re-plays), influence on the entries that came after it, and the degree to which it could only have been made by the person — or team — who made it.
In the comparative table maintained by the Books desk, Watershed sits within a band of 68 – 74 that contains some of the most contested swaps of the year. Editors vote with arguments; a swap requires three editors and one written defense.
From Wikipedia
In broadcasting, the watershed is the time of day after which programming with content deemed suitable only for mature or adult audiences is permitted. In the same way that a geological watershed divides two drainage basins, a broadcasting watershed serves as a dividing line in a schedule between family-friendly content and content deemed suitable only for a more mature audience, such as programs containing objectionable content; this can include graphic violence, strong language, and sexual content, or strong references to those themes, even if they are not shown explicitly. Many countries expect or require the transition to more adult material to not be abrupt, with the more 'mature' material appearing only later in the evening. The degree to which the watershed is publicly discussed and referred to also varies by country and culture; for English, in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth it is common to refer to programming as watershed or pre-watershed, while in the United States referring to a program as in the safe harbor is industry jargon general audiences will usually not understand.
