From: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com (Jim Mann)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.books
Subject: Re: The Literary Canon
Date: 12 Aug 92 18:37:30 GMT
Reply-To: jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com

In article <7178@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)  
writes:
> In article <5494@transfer.stratus.com>  
jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com writes:
> >In article <7161@skye.ed.ac.uk> jeff@aiai.ed.ac.uk (Jeff Dalton)  
> >> >Turn your disingenuous question around:  What would you suggest  
as  
> >> >an alternative method of guiding readers to a good selection of  
> >> >classics?
> >> 
> >> Why should they need guidance?  Do they need guidance for  
non-classics
> >> too?
> 
> Actually, I think it's a bit strange ot say the canon provides a
> guide to the classics.  Just how many non-canonical classics are
> there?

How about saying that the canon IS a guide to the classics.  I've
always viewed the so-called canon as a recommended reading list:
these books are good and you really should give them a try.

> 
> Anyway...
> 
> >Because there are tens of thousands of books out there, far more
> >than what can be read in a lifetime.  People need guidance 
> >in part to help them figure out which ones are worth trying.
> 
> Well, there's guidance and guidance.  It's not like the only
> alternatives are a canon and no guidance whatsoever, every
> reader completely on their own.
> 
> Besides there are so many books worth reading that it doesn't
> make sense to spend too much time reading the "canonical" ones.

But, while it could be argued that that there are a number of good
books that are not part of the canon, almost all of the books in the
in the so-called canon are good, and are thus worth reading.  With
the exception of those that wound up there because of historical
significance, the books in the canon are there because lots 
of people read and enjoyed them.

I think a problem, in this discussion, though, may be in our
definitions of the term "canon."  Sounds to me like you are 
defining it rather narrowly.  

> 
> >Furthermore, a good English department can help provide a
> >road map.  Many good books rely on some background knowledge
> >on the reader's part, and are better if the reader has this
> >background.  A good English department can, for example, tell
> >the sudent that they might better understand parts of Moby 
> >Dick if they read King Lear first, or that before reading
> >Ulysses it might be a good idea to read Homer, Dante, and
> >Shakespeare (particularly Hamlet).  Both novels, picked up
> >"cold," can be read and appreicated to some degree without this
> >backround, but are richer if you HAVE the background.
> 
> Sure, but that doesn't require a canon.  What background you
> need depends on what you want to read.  The shared background
> that everyone ought to have might be fairly small.

OK, then what do you mean by canon?  Again, you seem to be 
using the term in a way different from the way I use it.  I tend
to use it to mean "those books that are generally agreed to
be very good books and an important part of literature and
are thus worth pursuing by any educated person."  This doesn't mean
that every educated person will have read all (or even most) books
in the canon. There's not time to.  However, it is a group of
books that most people should sample from and acquire some
working knowledge of.

> 
> >Finally, a good English department provides a forum for 
> >discussion.
> 
> What does this have to do with the canon?
> 

Part of this discussion centered on how universities did not
have to concentrate on some central canon, and that readers
could discover what they like and read many of the canonical
books over the course of their lives. My point here was that
the experience is a more enriching one if you can read these 
books in college and then take part in a discussion of them.
I've read a number of authors on my own--Dostoyevsky and Faulkner
both come to mind--that I really wish I'd read as part of a college
course just so I could talk to another group of people about the
great book(s) I'd just read.

--
Jim Mann            
Stratus Computer   jmann@vineland.pubs.stratus.com