Word of the Day: Antidisestablish-Americanism???

Or "A Refinement"

There have been enough posts about this (and a few questions in the hall) that's I'd like to refine the whole "American Lit" vs "British Lit" thing.

First, let me say that the revolution brought about by American Literature in the second half of the twentieth century was good. The literature it has produced, at its highest, is good. Further, I'm pretty fond of a lot of that literature myself, both the good stuff and a lot of the dime-store stuff. And though I get tired of some shock-writers (who will not be named) a lot of my reading, even most of my reading, comes from this school. And that, dear children, is okay. But it is American, and more the power to them for adding something to the language.

But if it is all you read then you become dependent on it and incapable of making it through even a moderately challenging read (like Tolkien's Silmarillion, which is indeed only moderate.) That closes the door to too much good reading, so one ought to broaden one's horizons. That would go for any reader in the English language: Don't ignore the hard stuff!

Specific to Canadians I would go the step further. We began as an offshoot of Britain, first colonial, later a Dominion, and even now we're still a part of the Commonwealth. That's part of our shared heritage even if we aren't all from British stock. And with that should come some kind of cultural awareness. Again, I'm a big lover of American history and culture. I don't have much patience for some of the smugness that Canadians have towards our southern cousins because it's uncharitable and unjustified. But we're not Americans. We're Canadians and a shared literature is part of that. So for us, reading things like Jane Austen or the others I listed the first time (and countless more, Lord: Dickens, Conrad (though English was his second langauge,) Melville, Wilde, etc) is part of getting back in touch with something older. Try Robertson Davies, a Canadian writing in the British idiom, yet still fresh (and sometimes scandalous.)

My advice? Grab your Pride and Prejudice, or a copy of Bleak House, and hoist a cup of tea for what was. There's no reason to turn your back on the past just because you've forgotten it. After all, that's what reminders are for.