Thank you. I'm suspicious of any simple, two-point formula. Still, the relationship between genre and canon is worth puzzling over. What gives True Grit entry, but not The Lord of the Rings? Bloom is as good a starting place as any, since he is willing to take the notion of a canon seriously and offer a rationale.
One tongue-in-cheek criterion I came up with years ago is simply to count the number of pages it takes for anything to happen. Canonical works tend to unfold at a slower tempo.
I think Bloom's analogy of reading a canonical work for the first time and meeting a stranger captures something essential. As someone who strongly prefers the company of people I know at a party, I feel that analogy deeply.
Worth waiting for this reflection - the analysis of what makes "Solaris" canonical is intriguing.
Thank you. I'm suspicious of any simple, two-point formula. Still, the relationship between genre and canon is worth puzzling over. What gives True Grit entry, but not The Lord of the Rings? Bloom is as good a starting place as any, since he is willing to take the notion of a canon seriously and offer a rationale.
One tongue-in-cheek criterion I came up with years ago is simply to count the number of pages it takes for anything to happen. Canonical works tend to unfold at a slower tempo.
I think Bloom's analogy of reading a canonical work for the first time and meeting a stranger captures something essential. As someone who strongly prefers the company of people I know at a party, I feel that analogy deeply.