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What works do you think should be added to the literary canon?
(Inspired by some discussion over at the The New Lifetime Reading Plan topic)
Which authors or texts do you feel deserve a place in the literary canon, but don't currently have one?
There is, of course, not one singular, well-defined "canon" -- so interpret "the canon" as "the classics" or "required reading" or "most important works of literature" or however else you care to define it.
In particular, consider areas that the canon tends to overlook: female authors, eastern perspectives, plays (besides Shakespeare's works), etc.
At the risk of becoming the LotR guy (feels like I talk about it weekly here at this point), I think Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings is one of the most influential texts of the whole 20th century, completely revolutionising the fantasy genre and I would argue the fiction genre as a whole. It's a book I think everyone should read at some point, even if it's not everyone's cup of tea (the elf-songs aren't that bad and you can just skip them it's fine). I'd put it on the same level as Moby Dick in terms of lasting influence in the literary world.
Though one could argue that The Hobbit was perhaps more immediately influential; personally I think Rings just has much more substance, which matters when talking about matters of "Canon" in literature.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who doesn't already think that LotR isn't already part of said cannon.
I dislike the books tremendously, yet I couldn't deny their literary and historical importance. It still feels like most fantasy books are just ripping off Tolkien's works.
If nothing else the general attitude of reading them to 'appreciate them' instead of 'enjoying them' is a point in their favor for canonization. Similar to Citizen Kane.
I wouldn't say fantasy authors are ripping off Tolkein any more than FPS games are 'Doom clones'. I really like Terry Pratchett's take:
I didn’t say that all fantasy authors are writing “Tolkien-likes”. “Most” might have been an exaggeration even, but it certainly feels like it. It may be my general avoidance of the genre, but it feels like in recent years fantasy has stopped feeling quite as derivative as it was a decade or two ago. Or maybe I’ve just mellowed out about it.
40 years ago, I'd have called it much more derivative than 10-20 but I'm a heavy reader of the genre. I think your avoidance has exposed you mostly to the most similar to Tolkien books
I want to mention the Spear cuts through water by Simon Jimenez as a newer fantasy that to my mind achieves stunning success while not seeming Tolkien derivative. It draws on Greek theater and uses a chorus. It feels very Latin American to me. Wiki says that the author is filipino American.
I definitely think the 90s were a high point. Maybe the LOTR movies coming out were some kind of "okay those are mainstream now lets do other stuff" signal to publishers or something. Though yea like you say there's always been alternatives even if they're harder to find.
I do really appreciate that all the more mainstream current fantasy authors like Sanderson mainly work in stories that are less Tolkien inspired. Even the ones that have Elves and Dark Lords try to do something interesting like setting it in modern times or drawing from other mythologies.
I just finished my reread of LotR and currently listening to the excellent audio book of the Hobbit by Andy Serkis. Both are a light in dark times but I forgot how whimsical the Hobbit is. I can see it's origins in JRR Tolkien telling his kids bedtime stories listening to it right after the slightly more mature LotR.
Not that that's a knock at all, love both. Absolutely agree with adding them to the list, they have had a huge impact on both myself and the world.
In my opinion, Tolkien's work on The Lord of the Rings (and Silmarillion) represents the best modern synthesis of a creation myth I've ever read. It is vast, both self-referential and consistent across multiple levels, and rewards both close readings and along-for-the-ride adventuring in equal measure. The more times I read it, the more I find myself in genuine awe of it as a creative work.
In Deep Geek has a delightful YouTube channel that has a primary focus on Tolkien, for the interested. It's good stuff if you're familiar with the story.
Terry Pratchett.
Edit: Specifically Discworld, and more specifically Mort and Equal Rites.
Edit 2: I realize this is yet another male British author but I really believe his writing has had an outsized impact on his readers.
I’m about to finish Equal Rites and Mort is next! Discworld novels are so easy to read and they’re just delightful. With Equal Rites he took a big step forward as a writer… I’m reading them all in the order they were published and really looking forward to all the novels to come. Happy to see his books suggested here.
Making money doesn’t need to be in the literary canon but it should be required reading in high school so I can stop hearing about the gold standard
Also Hogfather, Nightwatch or maybe even Small Gods.
Nation if we can go out of Discworld
Night Watch is probably my favourite Discworld novel, but despite being seemingly standalone in its plot, I'm not sure it really would hit as hard without having read some of the prior ankh-morpork books to understand the progress that's at stake
It's actually the first discworld novel I read! Worked very well for me.
It's actually the first book I read in the Discworld series. I certainly was able to digest it without any other context, but on re-reading later after getting through more of the series it felt a lot more understandable.
I entered this thread specifically to suggest this if it hadn't already been suggested.
Just read Mort as my first Discworld book.
I'm roughly 30, and deeply upset that no adults ever recommended the series when I was a kid. Parents here: strongly consider these books for teenage readers! Much more personality than most paper mill YA fantasy books.
As far as American Literature goes, it always feels like the list was last updated in the 70s or 80s. Not that I have anyone newer than that to suggest adding but rather, reputationally, two American writers have really proven to have a genuine and thoughtful voice for American literature in the time since then:
They didn't make Fadiman's list but, for my money, they represent American fiction a lot more than Faulkner's work these days.
Cormac McCarthy's way with prose is unlike any other author, and is something to be experienced. You find yourself in a hypnagogic state, the words simply a flow from one intensity to the next. The subjects are unrelenting, bleak, stark, occasionally hilarious. I don't know if I could stomach a re-read of The Road or Blood Meridian, but I am very glad to have read them in the first place. Suttree's next, once I have the mental reserves on hand.
Ursula K Leguin, several good options, but probably the left hand of darkness.
Margaret Atwood, The handmaids tale.
I don't think there should be an established canon, but I don't mind lists of important works, or works well worth considering for reading.
I also agree with there not being a "canon"
But those are both good adds IMO with Octavia Butler being alongside, not sure which I'd pick but possibly a short story collection. I think genre fiction in general has been excluded from canon despite being where I learned more philosophy than anywhere but philosophy class.
Remains of the Day is one of the 'modern' books that has most impressed me.
Colson Whitehead is a brilliant living author. Both of these authors have won awards and I believe they are likely to be 'canon' for new generations. However, we can't know who will be remembered in 100 years. Plenty of award winning authors have fizzled over time and less known authors get recognized by new generations with different tastes and expectations.
Stephen King is one that was looked down on as popular and is now being appreciated as worth notice.
There is a little book that I love called Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman. It shows the challenges of working under a hierarchical bureaucracy and the absurdity of the workplace, nearly as well as Catch22. It's an approachable warm hearted funny book about teaching.
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson seemed brilliant to me. It's creepy and effective.
Octavia Butler has really impressed me as a speculative fiction writer.
Tim OBrien's the Things They Carried is already taught in literature classes but Matterhorn by Karl Marlantes impressed me more.
The Longings of Women by Marge Piercy really impressed me as a book and has a vivid portrayal of a homeless older woman. I will never forget this book but I don't think it's likely to gain a wide reputation.
Using that reading plan as an example of a 'canon,' two books written by women that seem like glaring omissions are To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith.
It does look like that list cuts off around the mid-late 1950s. I'm also not seeing much (any?) representation of science fiction, so at the very least H.G. Wells and Jules Verne deserve honorable mention. I'd also probably put The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams on there.
And ditto to the suggestion above of The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien. Whether you like it or not it's impossible to genuinely deny its influence over great swathes of popular media in the last half-century.
It was written in 1960 (the year on the website is from a subsequent publishing edition)
Hmm. This really depends on how you interpret "cannon". I think the things that become "classics" or "required reading" are just books that were really popular, rather than on their objective merits - though those do come into play as well.
(Though if I'm being honest I don't know how much of me saying this is entirely from my bitterness over the enduring popularity of The Great Gatsby.)
If there's a single book that I wanted everyone to read, it would be Shardik by Richard Adams. It's a beautiful work with incredible descriptions of nature that make it feel like free poetry at times, but the thing that really makes it special to me is the specific kind of magical realism that it presents. Shardik could be a god, or he could just be a bear, but amazing things happen around him nonetheless.
I think I would also like to have Push by Sapphire as part of it (yes, the one that became Precious). I think it kind of stands up the same way as Kurt Vonnegut would; something that is marked by it's perspective and use of strong voice. But unlike Vonnegut, who's use of voice tends to turn me off of his writing, Sapphire's usage draws me in. I'm sure that it isn't the same for everyone, though, so maybe it wouldn't make it into the cannon after all.
I also agree with @boxer_dogs_dance that Stephen King should probably be added, but for which book I couldn't say. I kind of like his pulpier "dumb" works more than the smart ones - I couldn't care less about the Dark Tower interconnected world. But if I had to choose, it would probably be It.
Paul Auster's New York Trillogy might already be part of the cannon. But to be honest, I kind of don't want to be the one to nominate them because it's so hard to wrap your head around. It feels like something you read just to tell people you're smart.
I should read The Great Gatsby again and see if it maybe is more tolerable. That also goes for Catcher in the Rye. I just finished Kerouac's The Sea is my Brother and it falls into those books' category... I feel they're just stories of boring day-to-day life [with some odd abnormalities thrown in to move a plot] that I think I'd write if I wrote a book. I feel that this is likely because I can't really create anything, just kind of regurgitate what I know with a few different flavors (pun totally intended).
I am one of those weirdos who actually liked Catcher in the Rye. The protagonist was relatable to me even though - or maybe more honestly because - he made a lot of dumb decisions and had an inflated ego. And his antics made me laugh rather than frustrate me as it seems so many other people experienced.
Yeah, I remember the frustrated feeling. I tried to read it since it was so "cool" after just having seen Conspiracy Theory, but it was such a struggle to finish.
I personally really enjoyed The Great Gatsby when I read it -- but I also wasn't forced to read it for school, which I'm sure played a role. It's very certainly not a book about boring day-to-day life imo, unless your day-to-day is much more interesting than most!
Not gonna lie, I remember very little from Gatsby... something about a car wreck, possibly involving the rich dude's cheating wife? Maybe a secret room in the mansion... I just know I remembered thinking that Nancy Drew held my attention better. Granted, 40s me likely would see it much differently than early 20s me, so I really ought to give it another go.
Zhuangzi, at least the “Inner Chapters.” I was just telling my students today that Zhuangzi, whoever they were, could have been a time traveller. His ideas and way of expressing them were so unlike those of his contemporaries. Sometimes this book feels like it is ahead of its time even today! The problem is translating it in a way that preserves its personality. Most translations are fairly conventional. Kind of how The Bible is always archaic sounding (sayeth, doeth, etc.)
All-Star Superman by Grant Morrison and Frank Quietly.
If you want to start reading American Superhero Comics, the original run of Ultimate Spider-Man is a pretty good way to get introduced and invested with the character, the tropes, and the Marvel Universe. If you want a subversion of all those tropes and the genre exploring itself, Watchmen is a pretty good exploration and examination on why costumed heroes can only solve so many problems. But what sets All-Star Superman apart is that it exists in a conversation with the genre, acknowledges the issues, but it embraces and chooses to love it anyway for the hope and inspiration it allows for. It is everything that Big Blue stands for, and as the platonic ideal of a superhero, it's what these stories bring to the table.
The entirety of Erich Fromm’s oeuvre.
Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies.
Herman Hesse’s Demian.
Luisa Valenzuela’s Change of Weapons.
And Robin Hobbs’ Realm of the Elderlings series, (which I will continue shouting about until my dying day).
*Also seconding the earlier suggestions of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness and J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings.
Ship of magic by Robin Hobb has the best characterisation/drama of any fantasy book I remember.
The portrayal of Wintrow and Kyle's relationship was so convincing, and each of the characters has such a perfect arc.
Maybe this sounds rich, but it did feel a little bit like Shakespeare.
All of Robert Caro's books, but The Power Broker in particular really demonstrates how American government (city, state, and federal) worked throughout the 20th century. And no other book explains why the built environment in the USA, particularly the Northeast, is in quite the state we see today.
Haven't finished LBJ yet (but to be fair, neither has Caro ;) ), but I suspect it applies the same to federal politicking.
The books are long, but an entire class on this material for a whole semester could make a lot of sense. 99% Invisible's Power Broker Breakdown made my Power Broker read so much better, a class could do even more.
I have never read a biography quite as spellbinding as Caro's work. It honestly reads like a work of fiction, so many cliffhangers and so much foreshadowing.
An interesting question but I think most of my tastes run to “basic” to have great input outside of much of what has been mentioned.
I think some of the things on my “Must read/not much like it” list are:
House of Leaves
The body problem
Maaaybe The Locked Tomb series if it sticks the landing on the last book.