About the New Canon

I guess the most important way to start this is to explain why I have declared this blog "The New Canon". Do you know what the Canon is? Just in case you don't here's a brief description and an explanation of why I hate it.

About 50 years ago, a group of scholarly blokes at the most acclaimed universities in the United States sat down and decided what books were to be considered literature and what books were just . . . well books. They didn't have any literary value and were not even considered "literature". The books in this Canon are said to be those literary works which have defined American culture and thus are the only ones fit to be taught.

What you must understand is that these books are incredibly limited. They are essentially a list of books written by dead Eurpopean men. They were judged to be ideal books against which all other books are to be measured. I want to create here a list of great reads that aren't necessarily written by someone who could not imagine what life would be like for our generation. The value of the books included on the Canon cannot be ignored, but by limiting ourselves to a strict list of valuable books, we eliminate the voices of our current generation.

Here's a link to Wikipedia that has more information about the Canon. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon