This is more about classic Sci Fi reading rather than the OT of formative first reading, but I think it still fits into the overall theme of shared canon.
Do either of you (or anyone else commenting) think that if you are a Sci Fi fan you should at some point have read Asimov, Clark, Wells, or one of the other early voices of the genre? Or Tolkien, Lackey, Moorcock, etc. in the case of Fantasy? Maybe not all of them, but at least one of them?
I agree that the idea that 'there is one canon for everyone' is a fallacy, and that pop culture is transient. But I also think that when you (general you) become a fan of a genre, you do yourself a service by reading the works that defined that genre in the first place. That includes YA too.
That's only if you're a fan though. And not every one should like everything within a genre to be a 'true fan'.
Oh, and if we're informally voting on classic YA, 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'The Giver', anything by Jane Yolen...
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branchandroot
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Date: 2011-07-20 12:50 am (UTC)Do either of you (or anyone else commenting) think that if you are a Sci Fi fan you should at some point have read Asimov, Clark, Wells, or one of the other early voices of the genre? Or Tolkien, Lackey, Moorcock, etc. in the case of Fantasy? Maybe not all of them, but at least one of them?
I agree that the idea that 'there is one canon for everyone' is a fallacy, and that pop culture is transient. But I also think that when you (general you) become a fan of a genre, you do yourself a service by reading the works that defined that genre in the first place. That includes YA too.
That's only if you're a fan though. And not every one should like everything within a genre to be a 'true fan'.
Oh, and if we're informally voting on classic YA, 'The Catcher in the Rye', 'The Giver', anything by Jane Yolen...