eta: or getting Teppy's nerd joy of making connections.

Nerd joy rules.

But I also like canon because it has made me go back and retry things that didn't work for me the first time.

Really? I still flee screaming into the night from Faulkner, Melville (Bartelby excepted), and Willa Cather.

And, Aimee, it's completely fine with me that you don't enjoy Shakespeare, but I will note that his nearest contemporary in spirit would probably be Eddie Izzard.

I would agree with that, but Eddie doesn't perform in sonnets and language that confuzzles me. It's not that it's rooted in politics or folklore, etc...it's his use of the language and the structure that turn me off.

n other words (and yes, I'm being partially flippant again), canon exists to make the nerds giddy when they make those connections.

This is fine by me.

I would say Steph is me, but she doesn't like Willa Cather.

it's his use of the language and the structure that turn me off.

Quite honestly? I much prefer watching a performance of Shakespeare, rather than reading one of his plays.

I love Willa Cather. And Melville for that matter.

it's his use of the language and the structure that turn me off.

That's exactly what turns me on about it.

I'd rather read Shakespeare mostly.

Another canon note: Much of what we consider literature today wasn't considered particularly literary or High Culture when it came out. Shakespeare, obviously, was pure popular culture. Ditto for Twain and Dickens. The novel itself was generally considered a rather low form of women's entertainment for a long time. (Until men started writing them. Aha, sexism again!)

Quite honestly? I much prefer watching a performance of Shakespeare, rather than reading one of his plays.

Me too, but in the absence of having say, MacBeth, showing on a dark and stormy night or at Halloween, I'll read it.

I still flee screaming into the night from Faulkner,

As do I. But yes, there were things that were shoved down my throat in high school that I really didn't like. Around my junior year in college my tastes had changed a lot, and there was canon, listing a whole bunch of things that I found myself liking the second time around. Faulkner managed to bore and irritate me both times and I haven't tried him since.

I love Willa Cather.

I remember disliking A Lost Lady so much that I've never approached Cather again.

And Melville for that matter.

Two words that drove me away from Melville forever: Moby. Dick. I understand intellectually what he was doing with it, style-wise and theme-wise, but DAMN.