Stories orient us to the universe and to other people, and without them we’re adrift.
I know not everyone likes the idea of a Western Canon, or a canon at all, but a set of texts we all know and agree are foundational provides us a shared language and understanding of the cosmos. If we reject a formal canon, I suspect that we are not rejecting canons entirely — we’re just leaving a void, and something will fill it. And the people who try to fill it will be driven by self-interest.
Who will it be? Disney? Hollywood? Worse… politicians? The moneybags who fund the politicians?
Is that who we want shaping our understanding of the world? Our childrens’ understanding?
Be conscious about your cosmos. Write the stories you think need to be told. Share and retell them. Patronize voices you want to have influence. Build a canon.
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