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Stravinsky posted:It is kind of fun to think about. Whats your opinion, what do you def think belongs on there. What do you think about Harold Bloom's take on it? I think honestly, like most lists, it is a waste of time. There are great books included most versions of the canon, and there are great books that are left out of all of them. Reading any of such books is a better use of time than trying to figure out a definitive canon.
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Feb 14, 2015 18:17
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anilEhilated posted:It really depends on how far you're going to strech what does and does not belong there. I mean, Mein Kampf, canon or not? Mein Kampf was not a particularly influential book. It was popular in Germany for a brief period of time but I would not say that the book itself had much of a lasting effect on Western literature and thought. Naziism itself did, but not because of that book in particular.
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Feb 15, 2015 19:06
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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, but imagine if they had won and the thing would force its way into public eye. Well yes if they had won the book would be much more influential as people in large parts of the world would have been made to read it in school, etc. Similarly the Bible would not be in the western canon had Christianity not been forcibly spread to huge areas of the world. quote:A probably better example - Das Kapital and its interpretations have for good or bad shaped the history and literature of the entire 20th century, yet it's a book few will have read nowadays. Das Kapital is a widely read and influential book and I would think anyone who has studied modern history on a basic level has been exposed at least to excerpts from it  I would say The Communist Manifesto is more widely read and influential though.
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Feb 15, 2015 19:27
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CestMoi posted:But there are philosophers!! Nietzsche is on there, Plato is on there, Aquinas is on there. Bloom's drawn the line in a very weird way, and I think that's sort of indicative of the problem with actually trying to write a western canon. You have to draw the line somewhwre so you don't end up including literally everything ever made, but anywhere you draw the line is weird and arbitrary and you leave a lot of perfectly fantastic and incredibly important stuff stranded on the other side To be fair, he did say he wasn't actually trying to make a definitive list and was pressured into doing so with that long list by his publisher. His short list includes no philosophers. Earwicker fucked around with this message at 14:42 on Feb 17, 2015 |
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Feb 17, 2015 14:40
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inktvis posted:Even with the most likely candidates, It's not completely possible but some possibilities are more likely than others. For example there is a pretty good chance that by 2250 or 2300, no one will be debating the western canon as all humans will be deceased.
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Feb 19, 2015 15:02
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