Earlier quoted context omitted.
Meaningless violence is too easy, so is ham fisted moralizing. True classics find some kind of meaning, even in the meaninless tragedy of life, like the Iliad.
Agreed, I think the secret is often a kind of subtlety that can often be confused with meaninglessness. For example, the first time I read "Of Mice and Men", I found the "meaningless" suffering to be infuriating - how could this book possibly be considered a classic? - until I later understood more context around the novel's time period and message, and realized it was only my juvenile tastes and expectations that ma…
The Iliad is an example of a classic with a bunch of meaningless suffering. But, the story is much deeper than 'bad stuff happens, the end' or 'bad stuff happens, that's just life'. I can write that kind of story all day, and I appeared deep to myself as a kid because I could 'see through' the meaning. At the end of the day, that sort of story is just boring. A real artist is the one who does get to some kind of coherent meaning to the whole thing. E.g. Iliad is a commentary on the Hellenist virtue ethic, and questioning why an ideally virtuous man like Hector is pulverized by a rage controlled tyrant like Achilles, without merely amounting to the juvenile 'virtue is meaningless' that passes as intellectualism these days. The same question is asked in the Psalms by the writer wondering at the fact that so many good people are oppressed and the wicked flourish. The Iliad began a conversation that echoes deep throughout history even to our present day. 'Bad stuff happens' just doesn't have that kind of staying power. People intuitively know there is more to our reality than that. That's why we are so bothered by sociopaths running our companies and governments. If 'bad stuff happens' is all there is to the story, then we would not be bothered.