Is classic literature dead? | A Professor Explains

Some books are said to be "literary" while others aren't - but what makes the difference? What is it that determines which books are "literature" and which ones aren't? Who decides which books and plays and poems get taught in our English classes?
Well, let's talk about it.
00:00 - Intro
00:57 - What is the literary canon?
09:21 - Who decides?
15:01 - Who shapes culture?
21:39 - What's the alternative?
26:48 - Wrap-up and poem
Armchair Egyptology Companion Video: • Museums, Authority and...
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The bookshelf tour is part of the "Extra Stuff" videos made available to my $5-and-up Patrons and Channel Members. To join either of those, see the links at the bottom of the description!
* Sources: *
---Books
------ Cultural Capital: The Problem of Literary Canon Formation, by John Guillory
------ Literary Theory: An Introduction, by Terry Eagleton
------ Professing Literature, by Gerald Graff
------ The Role of the Literary Canon in the Teaching of Literature, by Robert Aston
------ The Western Canon: The Books and Schools of the Ages, by Harold Bloom
------ This is the Canon: Decolonize Your Bookshelf in 50 Books, by Joan Anim-Addo, Deirdre Osborne & Kadija Sesay George
---Articles
------ "Why How We Read Trumps What We Read", by Gerald Graff
* Art: *
--- All illustrations by the wonderful Aud (portfolio: audmcname.com/)
* To Support Me: *
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[@zoe_bee]

Yes, I know Vonnegut wasn't a baby boomer.

[@30secondsflat]

I now apologize for my pedantic corrective comment :( ...love the video Zoe!!

[@herethererainbows]

Well actually. That was one thought I had. Thank you so much for this video

[@edwardpunales]

For what it's worth, I feel like the term "boomer" is slowly morphing into a slang term for "old person," leaving behind any connection to the concept of "baby boomers."

[@purplekittigaming]

i couldn't tell, so i yelled at the screen "THAT'S NOT A BOOMER, GET YOUR DEMOGRAPHICS STRAIGHT!" XD

[@purplekittigaming]

@@edwardpunales it does seem to be going that way

[@jacobd1984]

Well, if we’re talking children’s literature, that’s easy. British kids + family tragedy+ fancy estate of some sort. Background war optional.

[@otto_jk]

Narnia and A series of unfortunate events fit this description.. Any other books I can't remember or don't know?

[@Natalie-101]

@@otto_jk not necessarily kids books but definitely pride and prejudice

[@catherinepeng5028]

The secret garden too haha! (Love that book though)

[@sanoodle3820]

Great expectations fits too!

[@baconbitz7937]

@@catherinepeng5028 IVE BEEN TRYING TO REMEMBER THE NAME OF THAT BOOK FOR FOREVER

[@narpassword3546]

2:00 There is actually a "musical canon", which has a lot of the same properties as the literary canon you talk about here. It's why everyone has heard about Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven, but not so much women or modern composers

[@thegeekclub8810]

I’m no art historian, but I’d say the same is definitely true if the visual arts. Michelangelo, Raphael, Rembrandt, Caravaggio, Monet, Cezanne, the list goes on.

[@juliegolick]

Yep, I was coming here to say this. When I was at a liberal arts college in university, I had a one-term history of music course and a two-term history of art course, where we were introduced to "the canon" in both those fields.

[@locsoluv94]

I'd like to expand that there are different musical canons for different genres. Music by Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven are considered part of the "Western Classical Music Canon," but one can consider the set of "jazz standards" to be the "jazz music canon." There are even some musical works that overlap, such as "Summertime" by George Gershwin. Many forget that that song is originally an operatic aria.

[@drts6955]

I would say there's a "Canon" (loosely defined perhaps) in almost any area of human skill or knowledge that is not folk/local. There's like a Whiskey Canon for Christ's sake

[@dissonantvibe8585]

Came here to say the same thing. There absolutely is a musical "canon" whether it's the masterpieces of western classical music or the standard song book of American jazz

[@shoo_be_doo]

I do think it's important not to conflate "western" with "English-speaking world" which seems to happen so often. There's a number of Dutch books that are quite definitely western, quite definitely part of a western literary canon (the Dutch one) but that I never hear mentioned in any discussions of this kind. I'm sure much the same is true for German works, French works, etc.

[@otto_jk]

Being form Finland this is completely true: Authors from here are definitely western but nobody in England or USA is talking about Waltari or F.E. Sillanpää in literature class.

[@colonelweird]

This is also true within the English-speaking world. There are Irish, Australian, and Canadian classics virtually unknown in the U.S., for example

[@OneSlavBoi]

@@otto_jk I had a girlfriend in England and for some reason they're all stuck in their english speaking bubble, and not even actual world renowned authors are mentioned in English classes whatsoever, they barely make room for American authors. It's beyond me how the UK is renowned for top notch education. Even they didn't seem to know lol

[@truegemuese]

I have heard few English people even pronounce "Goethe" right, but he is for the German canon what Shakespeare is for the English one. For example, in Bavaria there is exactly one book mandatory to read in class, and it's "Faust"

[@mintjaan]

I had both an American and German education and I remember the only works we read were from large imperial cultures (regardless if they were Western or not) we didn't get Eastern European works, and my mother fought to keep Heart of Darkness in her class, because it was the closest to an anti- Imperialism European writer they had (Conrad wrote in English but was a Polish immigrant).

[@Miguel_blahblah]

Is this equivalent to asking what makes a movie "cinema"?

[@zoe_bee]

I would say so, probably.

[@starchythepotato2877]

There actually is a "musical canon" taught in music education consisting of mostly German concert music. In high school we got to read Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Nowhere in high school did I learn about non-European music. I would say the canon of literature is actually less regional than that of music.

[@notnotrachel]

i read things fall apart too and really enjoyed reading something other than (albeit good) books by white men

[@BSpaet-hf5xu]

Thats the anglosaxon pseudo-universalist hyperbolic answer, and its caused by the inclusion of English, non-American english and ancient European texts. In other parts of the world we know that there are national canons. They, in "western" countries, start at the same beginning, but differentiate at questions like "shakespear or goethe".

[@MissMoontree]

Literature was incredibly bound to regions. You only got the literature that suited the languages you had. So while I had German literature, my friend had French literature.

[@eleanorelmore]

I remember when I took an American Indian literature class and the teacher told us that, while this class is meant as a correction for the exclusion of these texts in the “normal” literary canon you’re taught, that there’s also a tendency to then create an American Indian literary canon of those books you must read if you’re going to read American Indian literature, which is obviously going to affect and shape the future publication and thus writing and study of American Indian literature, a shape which will obviously place certain expectations on American Indian authors who are already having a hard time being heard and now must speak a certain way if they want to be heard. He didn’t say all that exactly. It was more implied and he talked more about how he would try to both include those books in the literary canon (we read House Made of Dawn and Winter in the Blood) and also books outside that canon.

[@Henchgirl7342]

The problem with Native American literature is that it's too afraid to let go of its cultural ( and historical ) past and that people outside ( and sometimes inside ) the culture get wrapped up in seeing the entire racial group as one homogeneous substance instead of a collection of very distinct and separate entities. That's one of the reasons I hate Sherman Alexie as the defacto face of Native American literature. For as much as I didnt like "There There", one chapter towards the beginning did point that out.

[@CZsWorld]

What I don't understand is why schools consider books to be the only culturally significant medium. Curriculum should be equal parts books, movies, music, video games and KZbin.

[@zoe_bee]

I'd say it's probably because they've been around the longest? But there is definitely a bias toward written - rather than oral - storytelling, which is a whole other issue. But hopefully with the rise of Games Studies and "Graphic Narrative" (literally a "degree in comics" that my undergrad college offered!), these other mediums will start gaining respect from traditional academia.

[@mjrtensepian1727]

I think it’s because human language is the closest form of expression to the mechanisms of the mind. It seems to be directly tied to cognition, logic, sequencing, and various other aspects of perception and reasoning. Also I’ve played video games my entire life. IMO, they are *not* art, in the “high art”, Kantian sort of way academia defines art. Not meant as a dig, they’re just functionally a different sorta thing.

[@reywashere5284]

@@mjrtensepian1727 You make a fair point, but isn't the human language contained in movies, music, and videos even closer to the mechanisms of the mind? Spoken word can convey so much more than writing through tone, inflection, and facial expression. These things carry and convey the values of our culture at least as strongly as more traditionally written sources. Also, I would posit that the reason that you don't consider video games high art is because you don't experience them that way. You use videogames primarily as a source of pure entertainment or relaxation. Just like Zoe quoted at 24:37, the act of putting effort into studying something makes it art to you. I can tell the difference between different kinds of cheese, but it is not art for me the same way it is for someone who has put effort into learning and contemplating the qualities of cheese. Entire books have been written about the art of game design, the details of plot, levelling, and so on. If you were to play through one of your favorite games, but for every aspect you see take a minute to write down why you think the game developers made it that way, it wouldn't take long for video games to become art to you.

[@alexreid1173]

@@mjrtensepian1727 I think it depends on the video game. Some games are objectively very artistic and beautiful both in plot and design. Maybe nintendogs isn’t art but that doesn’t apply to all of them

[@carsonpearce5980]

@@mjrtensepian1727 id say not always. As a non gamer *some* videogames are most definitely art in that way, while others not so much. Theres a wide difference between Call Of Duty 17,000,006 and games like Pathologic or Papers Please from what I understand. The potential for video games to become one of, if not the most emotionally moving medium is there, in my opinion, because you take an active role in shaping the experience, and are thus more immersed in the world than with books or movies. Don’t get me wrong, I love books and movies, but videogames have many unique strengths that I am excited to see developed further.

[@poiseblemiramoon6992]

I think a great way to teach “classic books” is to do it in an intertextual approach. So much contemporary media borrow plots/ideas from “classic literature”, and this makes teaching “classic books” more interesting and related to our present culture

[@plsarguewithme2665]

Something that actually shocked me was that american schools dont have a 21st century media subject. During my senior year here in the Philippines, our Professional English and Filipino writing subjects include 21st century media, we have a subject dedicated to learning how to critically analyze it too, and our literature subject also has multiple contemporary writers in it... even Filipino queer which actually i never expected. We talked about memes and pop culture references especially online stuff. Of course this isn't perfect. I study in a private school so my experience might be better than others.

[@boyizheng5711]

I'd argue that institutions like the College Board and university admissions stifled the possibilities of American curricula. Even though every high school has the freedom of designing curricula, and every classroom a reading list, College Board managed to force everyone into reading dusty books, because anybody who cares to read attends the AP Lit exam. Canadian high school are a lot like Americans, but teachers are much more comfortable assigning diverse texts, because most Canadians don't give a damn about going to "prestigious" colleges.

[@TheCatanesFamily]

I wouldn't be surprised if MatPat had a "The Literary Theorists" KZbin channel in the works.

[@zoe_bee]

Don't give him ideas! 😬

[@8lec_R]

Funny thing is, I don't think he has ever shown the ability to critique film or game philosophy properly. Like ever. Atleast until I watched him back in 2020 (for 4 years) Yes he'll point out fallacies in the plot, but the ideas in the story are never questioned. And tbh barely any1 cares about "can the spiderman survive this fall" or whatever, but what matters is what core ideas, philosophy and moral framework the filmmakers or game devs are trying to get across, yet he barely (I don't remember any instance of him doing it) mentions any of that. I'm not saying he's bad, but finding plot holes or strange math problems in books are much harder than movies or games. Harder to monetize that is 😼.

[@zoe_bee]

@@8lec_R Have you seen the Big Joel video critiquing Film Theory?

[@8lec_R]

@@zoe_bee no. Now that you mention it I'll watch it and brb ☺️ Edit: watched the video. Yea I guess I'd completely forgotten about the Lorax video Mat made. I hadn't watched any other videos the Big Joel showed. Ok so I stand corrected, he sometimes tries to understand the meaning behind movies. But mostly he makes vids to entertain and teach kids.

[@marocat4749]

@@zoe_bee Youcan take it before rambley talking about literature,maybe with booktubers and co or other people with ideas :P Or as shared channel. Just people rambling. Whoever wants to do a chaotic podcast. Or a honorable title. Ps: Hav youseen prof lando(not a real prof, but really not far off) about memes, anime and that. Ye it should have an official course , that an tom nicols on dadaism an memes, yes.

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

Real talk, Chuck Tingle has inspired me as a writer more than any other.

[@jeremysmith4620]

Pounded by my own comment

[@PrettyTranslatorSarahMoon]

​@@jeremysmith4620 buckaroos know this way

[@krasmazov1959]

One night stand with my aromantic 69 likes.

[@andersonneil2293]

I'm studying to be a librarian and this video has alot to say that will be really relevant to me in the future as I might be the person selecting books for a community library at some point. I think y'all would be happy to know that this idea is a topic of conversation in my masters program and most of the people who will become librarians and archivists that I know are excited to tackle the ideas in this video.

[@JamesDecker7]

Just make sure there are copies of some Anne McCaffrey and Mercedes Lackey (or the modern equivalent) for some teens to find…bent paperbacks in the scifi section a plus.

[@williamchamberlain2263]

@@JamesDecker7 yes, definitely! And Neuromancer, and The Risen Empire, for the edgy kids.

[@Drekromancer]

@@williamchamberlain2263 Based.

[@withnail-and-i]

Please don't get rid of the classics. Homer is unbeatable.

[@benw9949]

Librarians rock. -- C.J. Cherryh is my favorite science fiction writer. Besides her Foreigner series, she has many great books. Also, she studied classics/antiquities and French and Latin and Greek. She taught at both college and high school levels before she became a full-time writer. This is why her novels have such a true-to-life, lived-in feel: She knows ancient history and cultures, so that gets applied to her human and alien characters. -- I'd highly recommend her Chanur books, but really, all her books re good.

[@varkr2066]

Classics are important. When you erase history you lose thousands of years of humanization and people asking questions of life through time. It's why so many people come to conclusions like "why does no one say this?" Yet, it as been said.

[@legendzero6755]

I've always felt that literary study had two objectives: 1). Enhance proficiency with the English language (communicating ideas with words is still an important skill) 2). Expand our ability to critically understand humanity (ideology, history, culture, thought, and so on) The conventional literary canon seems great at the first one. Could definitely be better about the second one. Either way, thanks for the great video :) Going through that weird cultural literacy book you showed in this video sounds fun

[@varkr2066]

EXACTLY. when we abandon classics we lose a large part of the time span of humanity. We disconnect ourselves with antique past. New books should be promoted, too, but we should use all books as tools.

[@robertblume2951]

The thing is what they teach is called English so they are doing what they set out to do.

[@idolevin8795]

For the second one, it's not the books. It's the teachers and general disdain people have developed for reading due to a constantly dynamic and changing world and media consumption that only accelerates.

[@LowestofheDead]

The literary canon is only good at teaching language because it changed the language. Shakespeare was so widely analysed in British education that phrases from his plays have become idioms in the English language. When Italy was unified in the mid-1800s, the government homogenized its many dialects into one language, based on the dialect used in Dante's Divine Comedy. By enforcing a literary canon, we base more of our culture on it, creating more of a need to read the canon (like she says in the Who Decides part of the video).

[@Tiggster-qr8mw]

As a senior in high school, “classic literature” doesn’t even do the first one well. Though tbh, literature as a whole is just completely not for me. I’ll do my best to give up reading books completely unless it’s required for an educational institution i’m attending, or it has a specific utility, such as a cookbook or a manual. Aside from that, i’m fucking done. The few books i read that i enjoyed were flukes, nothing more nothing less.

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

The best books I have ever read, my top three, are "Hunting by Stars" and "The Marrow Thieves", both by Cherie Dimaline, and "1984", by George Orwell. The DIFFERENCE is that "1984" gave me nightmares, while 'The Marrow Thieves" and "Hunting by Stars" actually kept me up. The OTHER difference is that Dimaline is Indigenous--Metis--so yeah, "white" literature is not the only literature out there, people. And I don't mean that in a snarky way, but seriously, go read "The Marrow Thieves" and "Hunting by Stars". The second is the sequel to the first. They ATE me. I could not SLEEP for reading them. I could not EAT for reading them. I HAD to finish before I could do literally anything else with my time. I've never been eaten by books like that before. Never.

[@MrSun0007]

Marrow Theives is hard to read through eh

[@ActiveAdvocate1]

@@MrSun0007, "Hunting By Stars" is, in my opinion, harder, except for the ending.

[@MrSun0007]

@@ActiveAdvocate1 wow, I haven't read Hunting By Stars yet, but I am very interested. I'm curious about a book that can be harder to read through than Marrow Theives. I'll check the library

[@lobstered_blue-lobster]

I know you already said this but I felt saying that was still a bit snarky (even if unintentional) I feel like we should try to normalise these stuff by feeling the need to mention this you are putting this up in a special status. That being said, yeah sure I would love to check those books out!

[@ArmchairEgyptology]

By referencing 'grey beards' we have now both (however accidentally) referenced Skyrim in our videos. Todd Howard has much to answer for.

[@studioneet7800]

As someone who questioned the "grey beards" during the time of No Child Left Behind's insistence on standardized tests for a standardized education of supposedly objectively correct answers on supposedly objectively great literature, the result was having to drop out of high school. Sure, now I have gone all the way through grad school, but the system didn't want me to ever get this far. I love your videos challenging the norms of schooling, I like to think it helps kids that are like how I was.

[@Pfhorrest]

For most of my life (and I'm almost 40 now) I had an irrational aversion to anything that was either widely popular or championed by supposed authorities -- basically, anything that someone is saying "you've gotta see/hear/read this!" was something I would then be inclined to avoid. That has slowly waned over the course of my life though, and nowadays I find myself realizing that not only are there a lot of good works in all those different kinds of media that I was missing out on, but that just being familiar with influential works *added meaning* to other works, and made my whole experience of all works in all media deeper and more impactful. Because meaning comes from connection, so meaningful works are ones that connect not only to things in real life that are already meaningful to people but also to other works, and that web of interconnections between works lends meaningfulness to everything else that connects to it, and so being familiar with it makes those works so much more meaningful to you.

[@paulgoogol2652]

Yes there will be much interconnection with popular information but that's literally all there is. This is my basic understanding of culture but there is no inherent meaning. "Meaning" just obscures and mystifies what really is just information known and cited by many.

[@Pfhorrest]

@@paulgoogol2652 Meaning is just significance or importance, cause to care about something. I think you're trying to read too much into the word "meaning".

[@kalai_doscope]

I have more patience for classic literature now that I'm older. I think that it helps to have sense of history and cultural context, especially when you are reading works that are not from your own language and culture. I had no interest whatsoever in classic literature when it was first introduced to me in school. Now that I know the reasons why certain literary works are regarded as important, I want to read them all. I'm starting with 'Epic of Gilgamesh' and 'Iliad'. Btw, I'm a new subscriber and really love the way you talk. Such 'exuberance of diction' haha. Excited to see more videos. Love from India!

[@boyizheng5711]

Good for you! I'd love to have that kind of connections with those books someday.

[@gearfordragnavar1361]

I think the reason people don't like the "classics" is because it's so disconnected from our culture. The works that became the classics were loved or accepted well enough in their the to make it into that "list" but new ones are not added. Speaking as a linguist and a writer I understand the so called importance of the works because they show up in many ways other than the book. However, I also dislike it because many works that are in the were not the original but instead a copy of the 12 heroic tails. Not saying these books should be banned or just not taught, but instead take a book each year or so and teach that in place or in addition. This is one reason the US, unfortunately, is having issues with education. The things that "are supposed to be taught" are wrong or the viewpoint in one direction. "History is written by the victor, not the one that's right." ~ Unknown

[@Nukepositive]

Since you mentioned US education, I feel it is important to say the biggest contribution of Common Core to English Language Arts was the abolition of Canon. The goal of Lit education became equipping students to understand and critique any book that a student might read now or in the future. The transferable skill of reading is more important than any list of cultural references.

[@SongMouse]

If you're talking about school curriculums, new works are being added all the time. The major push in English education at the moment is to include more diverse texts, and a great deal of work has been done to diversify the canon. Their Eyes Were Watching God, mentioned in this video, is a fantastic example of a great work which went from virtually unknown to what I'd consider canonical and widely taught in schools and universities. The truth is that most people don't like reading the classics because they're difficult. Almost every classic novel is going to have themes which address universal human concerns still relevant today, that's part of why they stood the test of time and became classics in the first place. But if you're struggling to read a text, you're not going to be able to get to the point where you can discover its relevance. And still, there's value in reading difficult texts.

[@ArchmageIlmryn]

I think the issue is more that a lot of books are not taught in a good way - pretty much any book is going to be hated by students when the teaching around it is geared towards mechanisms of enforcing that students read (like say being given a worksheet that you have to fill in as you read - I basically stopped reading and ended up just looking for the answer to the next question).

[@Tolstoy111]

New ones are added all the time. What are you talking about?

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

Ok, hot take: The Literary Canon is literally* a Literary Oboe! Let me explain: In Western symphony orchestras, everyone tunes to the A of an oboe because it's very secure, loud and distinct...unlike pretty much every other note on the oboe, which only retain one of those qualities: LOUDNESS. So if the oboe is out of tune, everyone is out of tune. We accommodate the oboe in its more insecure areas because otherwise we couldn't play with the oboe and that would be a shame because, as Tony Kushner wrote in Angels in America, its sound is like "that of a duck if the duck were a songbird". And we wouldn't want to miss out on that, would we? In the Arabic orchestra, everyone tunes to the qanun: a box with strings of fixed lengths and little levers. Why do they tune to the qanun? Well, that's where those levers come in: it's the only instrument where the microtones used in Arabic music are actually mechanically accounted for. In every other instrument, those, often regionally distinct, microtones are produced by humans. On the ancient reed-flute called ney, the musician moves their mouth or thumb one quarter-of-an inch and everything is too flat, on the fretless oud and violin, they slide their fingers into just the right position for every note, but on the qanun, it's literally just a switch you flick and then your C or G is a quarter sharp or three-quarters flat. It's not exactly a perfect system because the cultural nuances of the regional microtones can't all be accounted for in one instrument, but it really helps the orchestra play together in a nice compromise that still sounds distinctly Arabic. Unlike the oboe, the qanun can actually handle its own; it's just if everyone orients towards it, it sounds nicer. What's the point of all of this, admittedly, far too long parable? Well, guess what the qanun and the canon have in common? -Yeah, that's right. Their names come from the same Greek word, which basically means "measuring stick". All of this is just to say that if I learned anything from this video, it's that the Literary Canon is more like a Literary Oboe. If we don't read or reference it, it's sad because we're used to the way it reads and sounds and its themes and the like, and intertextuality is cool and all that improvisational jazz that only works because of the solid foundation, yadda yadda yadda. It would be cool if it were more like the qanun though. Something that brings people together in an ideology based around commonality rather than just tradition. Sorry, this was so long. I guess I forgot my measuring stick or something. *yeah, I know it was a figurative use. But I also used 'literally' figuratively, so :P

[@raddestoflads7771]

this bite of music theory was cool, ty

[@gemmeldrakes2758]

Thank you for the parable! Your analogy explained things very well. Canon Lit is very much like that...we hear echoing in other literature or other forms of art.

[@kelvinmatheus6178]

Golden comment

[@rasmusn.e.m1064]

@@kelvinmatheus6178 Thanks! I hope it was useful.

[@ghin780]

Now I would really love to hear the stories of murder and theft connected to each piece in the British Museum. That sounds rather entertaining.

[@chrisball3778]

Some of the pieces in the British Museum were certainly straight-up stolen or looted, but it's become a bit of a British progressive cliche to say that they ALL were. The more boring truth is most were dug out of the ground or bought from locals. This was often enabled by huge imbalances in the wealth and power between colonial empires and colonised people, and it's very possible to argue that this amounts to cultural theft, but it's not really what most people have in mind when they think about 'looting.' The idea of repatriating artefacts actually poses philosophically interesting questions about who 'owns' stuff and why. If a valuable artefact was brought to the British museum after being donated or sold by an archaeologist who spent years of their career locating and excavating a lost ancient settlement in another country, whilst being paid by an institution in Britain, should the archaeologists claim to 'own' the piece and their right to donate it to the museum be automatically superseded by the modern-day government of the country it was originally found in? The archaeologist certainly put more work in to obtaining the object than the government, and often the modern-day government represents a very different culture from the one that created the object, sometimes the descendants of another colonising power. Why should modern geography be considered a more important factor in where objects are held than other factors like the chain of ownership or where they'll be accessible to the biggest audience or educational value? There are definitely objects that should unquestionably be returned to their native countries, but there are a whole lot more where it's more complicated.

[@Tolstoy111]

You could say that about cultural artifacts all over the world.

[@markprecious]

Zoe, the idea of a shadowy cabal of literature professors gathering in a smoke-filled room, deciding what is literature and what is not, and hiring hit men to murder anyone who disagrees - sort of an evil version of the Inklings? - is itself an idea for a book worthy of joining the canon! 😂

[@willswanson1840]

My old man, a racist petty-tyrant, loved his copy of the so-called Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. I thumbed through it once and it is an absolute doozy of doozies. I bet your audience would get a kick out of a dissection of it.

[@chrisoneill3999]

The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy is what Americans read *instead* of reading books. They used to use the Bible for that.

[@glilimith]

I didn't do very well in english class way back when, and I think most of why was that I was always made to feel stupid for connecting with the "wrong" types of books. Like, not not only were my frivolous fantasy novels not worthy of deep thought, there couldn't even possibly be anything there to think about. I was always given the impression that Literature is an objective quality that is both measurable and directly connected to how much thought is possible about the work, and that if I think I'm thinking deeply about something not in the canon, I'm actually mistaken.

[@josephjarosch8739]

It did not happen until I had passed the grade in question, but my school actually dropped Tom Sawyer from the curriculum. Guess what they replaced it with? *Between the World and Me* by Ta Nahesi Coates. A bold choice, for sure. There would almost have certainly been *a discourse* in my house had I been in that grade!

[@TerriMRoberts]

Great video, Zoe! Love that you took this on. I taught English Lit at the high school level for many years (before my career change) so this is a topic that's close to my heart. I was very fortunate to teach for a while at a school of all indigenous students, so I was able to choose BIPOC writers that were interesting to them. Not cannon in the traditional sense, but SO much more valuable. And as you said, Shakespeare gets recycled all the time in movies so it's not like they're missing out! Let 'em watch the Lion King and move on! That's not a snark btw, I love Shakespeare - studied/ taught/ acted in most of his plays over the years - but even with all the enjoyment I get from his work, I don't believe he's a 'must" read for everyone. But I do get all of the jokes in the Upstart Crow tv series, lol! The idea that we 'must' read certain texts to be considered cultured is becoming impossible anyway - there's just too darned many books, plays etc to read them all - so I hope people are getting away from that gate-keepy notion.

[@stacie1595]

The best books I read in school, the ones that taught me the most and held my attention, were all outside the cannon. And on another note, perhaps the reason the cannon is so heavily referenced and alluded to is because it's forced on us as students. Its universal to most people who went to public school and therefore better for reference as opposed to some novel that only a handful of people have read.

[@baggyyy]

From a students perspective; the challenge to teaching "the classics" is that the vast amount of your students *do not* care about some englishmen with a talent for writing plays who's been dead for 400 years. For them to learn anything you have to threaten them with tests or hope they show some intrest in the topic. I began to pay attention to those things when I got into video essays about characters/works on youtube, but to this day I cannot bring myself to read more than 5 pages of those classics in one sitting without my mind completely drifting away.

[@barkspasenine]

I do think a big part of it is teachers not bringing the past into the present very effectively. For example, the old timey language and style of writing can really mask a lot of the humor and the relatable drama. If the teacher can help you see modern parallels, that makes it easier to appreciate the piece even if you don't like it. But a lot of teachers don't do that, or there's no time in the curriculum for that. At the end of the day, the problems and themes in stories really aren't that different across time. Love is love, pain is pain. But if you aren't trained on how to see past the difficult and/ or annoying language, or given the tools to, I agree it can certainly feel... useless and burdensome. Ps, if you're having trouble concentrating while reading something, I recommend trying to highlight the main idea of every few paragraphs/stanzas/etc or whenever the main idea changes, or anything that seems important or potentially interesting. You can highlight anything that's especially confusing or bizarre. Highlight names if you can't keep track of who said/did what. It gives you an immediate purpose/task to complete without having to stop reading and helps you process what's going on, so you don't immediately forget and gloss over, only to turn the page and be like "wait what? Why he mad?" Also if you haven't highlighted anything after several paragraphs, that's a good indication that your mind is wandering and you're on autopilot. It helps you visualize exactly where you lost your concentration and signals to you to go back and hunt for something to highlight. If you're at a part where there's nothing happening and it's all description, nothing to highlight, just write a note in the margin and try to mark off the beginning and the end of the description/useless bit. Makes it easier to skip over in the future if you have to scan the text again for anything and allows you to feel accomplished that "ah yes, I did put some color/writing on this page." It's not for everyone, but it's something to try if you're struggling. I'm oddly motivated by putting color on pages to break up the monotony of white page after white page after white page...

[@Henchgirl7342]

What makes Shakespeare unapproachable for the modern student isnt that it isnt a good story that says things about the human condition . But that you're engaging with it the wrong way. It would be like showing your friend your favorite movie by making them read the screenplay. A Shakespearean play, when it was contemporary, had all the bombastic-ness of a professional wrestling match.

[@baggyyy]

@@Henchgirl7342Full agree, every time I've seen something modernized, but heavily Shakespeare inspired or just Shakespeare modernized I loved it for the grandure and the spectacle

[@TheModdedwarfare3]

Yeah I don't think we should actively be inflicting pain on students with these old dryly written books when there's millions of well written and more modern and enjoyable books available for free on the Internet. If you want kids to grow up and continue reading books then maybe make it an enjoyable experience.

[@bakasta5992]

Just watch this in class kzbin.info/www/bejne/q5mkiIBqbM2ChM0

[@chrisball3778]

There's nothing quite like being told that you're obliged to read a given book because it's super important that you're familiar with it to put you off reading that book. Putting books up on pedestals as part of the literary canon turns them into chores, the reading equivalent of eating your vegetables. As I've got older I've actually gained more interest in reading some of the literary classics, but it's because I stopped thinking so much of them as self-improvement, and started thinking about them as books that lots of really smart people I admired liked and I might like too. Some still seem tedious to me, but a lot are genuinely entertaining and thought-provoking, even hundreds or thousands of years after they were written.

[@aprilmichel7816]

I cannot agree more. You know that something is wrong when a top tier bookworm and good pupil like me refused to read one of the most influential books of my culture (or so I was told) and faked an assignment just to get away with it even though it would have been right up my alley (or so I was told). I just couldn't understand a teacher looking at me reading a book and saying: "No, read _this_ ! And if you don't, you'll get a bad grade! And you don't get to pick from a couple choices either!" I still haven't read it.

[@ginelliaamira6953]

Yeah, omg!!! I keep wanting to read books about Dostoyevsky, Tolstoj and Douglas Hostader. But, I always postpone because I feel like I will need more context to understand these types of literature, because only "intellectuals" can understand this. It's so annoying, because not only am I talking down on myself, I am also intimidating myself on reading a piece of paper.

[@silversam]

Zoe: there's a word for this system where everything feeds into everything else but it's too big to really see me: a giant feedback loop? Zoe: ideology me: oh yeah... OH WOW WAIT ...

[@floramew]

I would love to see a teacher assign a very fun and "not that deep" book and then analyze it & go over the cultural context it was written in etc.

[@hopelesslydull7588]

I wonder if analysis updates through both/multiple books would be possible/effective in teaching that cultural context. Like, I'm tasking you with checking in with me throughout multiple books analysing them with citation hoping it gets you to see the infulence on the more fun "not that deep" books. If you fly through the fun books early, that's fine because upon a second look-through after having read and analyzed the classics will make it easier to see their shadows in these other works. Would need better curating but an example for analyzing tragedies: Tell me the themes and tropes you noticed in at least 4 of the following, at least one must be a play: •Ch 1-4 of Series of Unfortunate Events: the Bad Beginning •Act 1 of Oedipus Rex •Ch 1 of Wuthering Heights •Ch 1-2 of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close •Act 1 of Death of a Salesman •Ch 1-2 of The Fault in our Stars

[@ryanfinnerty6239]

Cultural context throws us away from the true art of a book

[@hopelesslydull7588]

@@ryanfinnerty6239 Crime and Punishment removed from the cultural context of turn of the century St. Petersburg doesn't improve the Art of the book, it lessens it.

[@floramew]

There are probably some scholars who agree context is detrimental. Captain America punching nazis with the troops in ww2 didn't turn into the incredible hulk in the run from the us military during the height of Vietnam War discontent didn't happen in a vacuum. And learning that Les Mis was in part trying to show how awful it was for the French justice system of the time to label someone a felon for life-- even after serving their term, no one wanted to hire such a person. Which doesn't map directly, but sure as shit feels very similar to the US treatment of felons today. It rarely matters to the bureaucracy whether you did time for mass murder or stealing bread to avoid starvation-- and more than the lofty literary themes, that's what strikes me as Important.

[@nickyjul9642]

I did that with a russian children's book. Not deep at all but I made them look at it like a milieu study. They absolutely hated it because it wasn't composed "smoothly". Seeing it as a fairytale the kids did not have the wish to think about it further. Collecting and analyzign subtle hints was boring and exhausting for them. Tried the exact same in an older class. I already lost them during their first read. They felt disgusted by the fact is was meant for children and had no wish to continue. Tried again in an oder class with a shallow, age appropriate book. After several parent complaints the students complained to me that they do not wish to read in school what they read in their free time. I mean, I understand. Having to read a book takes away your intrinsical motivation to do the same thing. *0/10, will not try again*

[@Jaspertine]

Only two minutes in (intriguing setup, I look forward to watching the whole thing), but as a musician, I can assure you, music scholars have found a very easy way to establish a canon of the great works of music. They include European written score composed from the start of the Baroque period until the tail end of the Romantic (with a small amount of lip service for the modernist era) and simply ignore all other musics that have existed in any other place or at any other time.

[@mhlightable]

Have you ever heard of this book "Cultural Selection: Why Some Achievements Survive The Test Of Time And Others Don't" by Gary Taylor? The subject of this book is how we decide which works of art are worth keeping in our collective memory or in other words, become part of the cannon. He broadens his subject to include all art forms as well as literature. He makes some interesting observations.

[@LauraCrone]

My 10th grade English curriculum included Bartleby the Scrivener and the greatest gift my teacher gave us was straight up saying that the reason we were reading it was so that someday when we were at a cocktail party for smart people we could say "I would prefer not to" and get a knowing laugh out of everyone.

[@nancykira717]

very good points. The sad truth tho: when i asked my teacher "why should we read this author?" They replied with "oh because they are important...moving on now"

[@rorykurek643]

Wow, this might be my favorite video of yours yet. I love when someone reveals the hidden complexities of a thing you've always taken for granted!

[@elaias8528]

would love to see a video about the dictionary of cultural literacy!

[@private2809]

Scrolled to find this comment, thanks!

[@OOB080]

I'm Brazilian, here we study mostly Brazilian Literature (Only about what written pieces after they began being produced here, of course). But my teacher did somewhat of a smart tactic to teach it. We did study the characteristics of certain periods in literature, but many times, to optimize the short time we had, she would show us a movie that, even if it could not draw any direct resemblance the a story, the characteristics would fit the concepts brought on that period.

[@collintouchette1445]

I've recently been reading folklore and mythology from a variety of cultures and that really started revealing a lot of connections to me. It also lead me to consider how these connections came about, be it stories traveling and adapting to new cultures, shared human experiences, or the ways that they've been recorded and translated. The web is a really great way of encapsulating some of the stray thoughts I've had about this

[@shadeebot2698]

That was actually just a great intro into systems in general, and told in an approachable way. Thanks for the vid!

[@Lawfair]

I always assumed the material in our school literature anthologies was chosen because it was public domain. On the other hand you brought up "To Kill a Mockingbird", which isn't public domain and I read in elementary school, and my mother says her mother exploded when she read it in school after it first came out.

[@martian8987]

The part about measumes really resonated with me, it's exactly the reason I stopped visiting them - because every artifact is treated as if it was plucked straight from that time period e.g. a persian plate, and its Legand/explanatory tab only mentions the artifacts origin, not the history that happened since, and not how it ended up there.

[@astrumsan603]

Wow! This is a great resource - when I took my IB Literature class our teacher spent the first two months exploring what makes texts, what makes literature and what makes canon… it was really rewarding!

[@izzyvader234]

The production quality!!!!! Amazing!!!! So proud of your channel’s growth

[@BreadMaestro]

That was lovey. Thank you. It makes me feel better about my attitude towards what I read in schools, how it was all taught, and the one true definition given for any metaphor seen……basically I’m grumpy, and would have rather had discussions and interactions than perspective “teaching.”

[@Allison_Hart]

I think another solution would be for English classes to be more free form, where students get to choose which books they read as long as they can make a case that the book has literary merit. Then English class itself would be more about studying narrative tropes and tools, grammar, literary periods, etc., but meanwhile as homework the student would be reading the book they want to read.

[@futurestoryteller]

Two pretty serious problems with this. How can they argue the book has literary value, have they read it already, is this just going to be a class about "your favorite book?" Then there's the problem of the students not all being on the same page. If you talk about different books you're just talking about different books, but if the book is assigned then you get a bunch of different perspectives on one book. So this might be an interesting way to teach A class, but not THE class, probably

[@juliaa35]

We often did something like this at my high school! We would get a category (for example Nobel prize winners) and then get to choose whatever we wanted within it. It actually worked really well.

[@bigbawlzlebowski8886]

@@futurestoryteller my hentai mangas have literary merit.

[@randomstranger623]

@@bigbawlzlebowski8886 Only that sex sells. But if you're talking about Metamorphosis (177013 right?), then yeah, that does sound culturally significant. Holy cow, why.

[@MeZmerTized]

I started writing again recently and found this inspiring. Thanks for another fantastic video!

[@SomniRespiratoryFlux]

To add something, you can see the self-fulfilling prophecy of typical arguments for the canon as-is in the "cultural importance" - by canonizing a work, it gets more lasting exposure through the years even compared to other "classics" that aren't as widely seen as "the best", leading to more references or modernizations, boosting the argument those are "canonical", and so on. (This exists in other media too - how many times do you see people list Beethoven as "the best composer ever" despite not knowing that much of his work, just because he's so broadly canonized as such? Or even in contemporary music terms, how many lists of "best rock albums" have albums like Led Zeppelin IV or Dark Side of the Moon at the top purely because of their reputation and a sense of obligation?) I like the web approach to the canon - one caveat I will add is that it cannot be a geometric web with a clear center, because then you get the same issue of "the middle of the web is the most important and I can arbitrarily decide where the edge is". Great video!

[@teodorapetkovic]

Loved the video! Much food for thought in this one!!!

[@sabrinarachel6053]

Thank you for this video :). I was thinking about why we read certain “types” of books in typical English classes and how they came to be the usual taught books.

[@laurachalupa118]

I am only a few seconds into the video. I just love the way your background looks. It feels super inviting.

[@whiteflagstoo]

Wow, sometimes I watch videos and 20 minutes feels like forever, but I love Zoe Bee's essays, so it just flies by! I learn a lot too. Just wanted to pass along a compliment.

[@charlottemclean6130]

I love the metaphor of the British Museum as a dragon’s hoard, it gives some sense of the brutality of Empires and the plundering nature of their acquisition. 👏

[@Merdragoon]

This "Canon" is also a bit of an discussion for Art History as well. I know slightly different topic, but I have noticed that the Written arts and the Visual Arts (as well as Musical) Have similar issues, which we talked about in my Collage Courses when I was getting my BA in Art History, but people aren't talking about it outside of my courses I had with one particular Art History Professor. Dr. Karen Leader. So you talking about it in the Literary world had me noticing similar discourses that's been going on in the Art History world. I do want to start breaking down those barriers of discussion on the topic more, and showing people here at KZbin to open up their minds a bit more than their little niches on similar issues by making a series of videos (using what I know of Art history but connecting it more to other arts as well in small ways as they're just as important as shaping what we know in Society). When you asked "Who's the Gardener" My first thought was "Society" which have been a discussion within the Art History Community of "What is considered Art." (Sorry for this particular tangent but I wanted to put another point in why your discussion is important in a different area).

[@Densoro]

Yooo I live by the view of culture as an ongoing conversation. For example, 1994's Key the Metal Idol was a Pinocchio story that asked, "How can we make sure technology inherits the best aspects of the humanity that created it? What would it take for a robot to become a real girl? Unconditional love?" 1998's Serial Experiments Lain batted this question back across the net, asking, "If the boundary between humans and machines can be transgressed, what would it take for a human girl to become one with the machine?" with explorations of horrifying loopholes in Jungian selfhood that went all the way over my head until video essayist Max Derrat filled in that missing context. Like. These questions aren't _insignificant_ just because they were released on VHS. Life gets so much more interesting when we look for a mind-screw in _any niche we can find._

[@stephenweigel]

My this is a controversial thumbnail. Should be a fun video

[@lucaiozzo8273]

Great work your human and your editor did, Desmond!

[@roylong2059]

Loved that picture of the invisible guard rails really helped me to paint a mental picture.

[@mathieuL2204]

you are so articulate it makes you irresistible Keep on keepin on soldier

[@SylviusTheMad]

My favourite English professor wrote his doctoral thesis on William Gibson's Neuromancer. Not a lot of classics in his class.

[@-chippedstars-2889]

I noticed your copy of The Resurrectionist on the shelf, wonderful choice, it has some gorgeous artwork and speculative biology

[@lazydroidproductions1087]

About to have to write an essay in what makes a book a good book, so thanks for this video. Also the most recent book in my bog-standard English class was Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God, so either times are changing in the literature-space, or my school is actually especially good even if it often doesn’t feel like that

[@Pingwn]

Great video! Keep up the great work.

[@zoe_bee]

Thanks!

[@oliverspencer2411]

I do think no matter the origin, asking thoughtful questions about the writing is incredibly important, and encouraging that methodology helps us ask more questions of everything

[@floramew]

Always in the lookout for new points of view to read about, and your brief description of zora neale hurston fits a few different categories of things I'm trying to learn about... when I go to check out audible, oh hey would you look at that I already have a few things of hers lmao. Good reminder, though.

[@ernestonasution8693]

my IB English course in HS was kind of like the encouraged "unorthodox" methods you described. I loved finding the interconnectedness of texts that may seemed to have no connection in appearance. Shoutout Mr. Nettles and Ms. Palumbo.

[@katieb4314]

I love your videos! So well made.

[@dietwald]

Thank you for being the best literature teacher I ever "had." Your actual students are truly blessed.

[@arifaygenov4358]

excellent video, as usual, and yes, please do a scathing review of the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy

[@LuxVi7]

English is my second language and my experience is that teachers play such a HUGE roll when it comes to HOW they introduce their students to classics and make them interested to read. Me, as a girl still learning English was able to understand Shakespeare, was reading the odissey among other classics and was absolutely enjoying them and so were the rest of my classmates. You just don’t dump an okd book on a student, you create activities and use different media to help students engage and even have fun with the book. That English teacher was a treasure to me, no only did I get into reading because of her but also got into classics without fear.

[@DavidLindes]

Beautiful poem - both in form and meaning.

[@kaffee7195]

Such a great channel, love your videos ;-)

[@CadaverAndMuse]

When you said 'Who chooses what goes in the canon?' I thought you were going to say that Time chooses, i.e. readers & writers throughout time, the lovers of literature & poetry, who, through their love, keep certain books alive into the next generation merely by owning copies. It's like the natural selection of books. Books are like infants: quite useless and extremely vulnerable to exposure, thus babies evolved cuteness to ensure community-wide affection, and books beauty. Guardianship ensues. Babies prove that cuteness is more effective than beauty, but beauty outlives a human lifespan.

[@dragonfly.effect]

This reminds me of a curious remark I heard on another KZbin channel. The subject was some list of dos and don'ts for aspiring writers, and the presenter was someone in the publishing industry (editor? agent? other?). She had been dispensing advice on various topics for several minutes when a certain complication made her interject a clarification to the effect of "this only applies to commercial fiction (of course); literary fiction is a completely different matter (and beyond my purview)." Seemingly, then, a publishing house focused on maximizing profit has to understand (or define) this distinction, lest it squander its fortune by mistakenly publishing a work of actual literature. (!?) (There's also the phenomenon of libraries having different classifications for "fiction" and "literature". It's always made sense to me, since I was raised to be a (Eurocentric) culture snob. But I'm pretty sure that Zora Neale Hurston, Lady Murasaki and Isabel Allende would all make it onto the literature shelves.)

[@ThatDangDad]

Great video, ZB, I really appreciated it. Eager to check out Armchair Egyptologist's videos too!

[@eleanorelmore]

The observation about the canon being descriptive not prescriptive reminds me of Gilbert and Gubar’s famous Madwoman in the Attic essay where they talk about how many called Harold Bloom’s description of the canon being sexist and they pointed out that his description of the canon was sexist because it was a sexist canon and so any description of the canon would have to be sexist if it accurately described it. Bloom didn’t prescribe the canon as sexist but described it as such.

[@chiblast100x]

I haven't watched the vid yet as I write this, so sorry if I'm repeating something said therein. I've always liked the idea that the core corpus of the literary canon is the written works that survived beyond their initial time of production. Using a Shakespeare example: Macbeth was originally mounted in the first decade of the seventeenth century. It was remounted by various troops and companies for decades after. It was first published in print in the First Folio in the 1620s and has never since been out of print and has been remounted fairly consistently since then as well. All this in spite of the fact that plays in that era in England were mostly considered disposable entertainment and few of them have survived to today, let alone seen constant publication.

[@jjkthebest]

There was some really cool stuff we got to read in our English class that I probably wouldn't 've read on my own: 1984, Frankenstein, even Othello was kinda fun. But then we also had to read some book about a drug addict. And of course to kill a mockingbird. I kinda get why they wanted us to read it, but it wasn't fun. I did manage to convince one of my teachers that I could read Terry pratchett for my free choice literature, which was fun.

[@ghostporcupine]

Zoe, I love your patron poems!

[@zoe_bee]

Thank you so much!

[@viniciusjdasilva8555]

just found your channel and this video makes me so happy. I have a degree in philosophy and some of my friends always talk about whether to uphold the western canon or abolish the western canon (the philosophy one) and I feel like your video will help them see the point that I have been trying to tell them about it being about ideology and societal values and not necessarily whether something is sacrosanct and shouldn't be changed or 'just old white dudes' that we should stop reading.

[@normaluser1228]

i honestly thought u had multiple million subscribers. ur content is always great. been here since the lovecraft video, keep it up

[@jonathanjungjohansen6470]

Wonderful and nuanced - good point about the canon as a 'spiderweb'! I see "Fungi of the Far Realms" on the shelf to the right. It's a lovely, quaint work both fantastic as a roleplaying game resource, and as an aesthetic work :) So nice to see others appreciate it ^^

[@sugar_walls]

yes!! please do a video on that cultural literacy book

[@tatiannatownsend1531]

Very great video and interesting subject :) as with all things, this argument seems microcosmic of phenomena that exist on all scales. This call to act in deciding what is culturally significant, “canon,” beautiful, etc is being asked of us in popular culture, our democracy, the economy, etc. I think the weed analogy is a great and transferable way to think about a multitude of issues right now.

[@shytendeakatamanoir9740]

8:40 In French, "weeding" is a librarian term for getting rid of books in the library.

[@noahclaycameron]

Ending the video like that will forever be part of my literary web

[@priscachoi7530]

Helpful and well explained

[@Strick-IX]

I'd say it's essentially a form of tradition and cultural affinity which, in theory, would make for more cohesive and coherent ways of communicating ideas. I'm of the opinion that "literature," though arbitrary, has tremendous cultural significance, even if it's just as a "rite of passage" for getting through high school. And, although this is more of a sociological angle, it apparently "matters" that we know which quotes are from Macbeth, what it means to be "quixotic," and what "that thing" in "that book" is supposed to represent, so you can interpret and reuse some combination or permutation of creative elements from "the classics," articulating concepts in ways that your peers will recognize (and, ostensibly, find impressive). However, I would also argue that there is a clandestine tinge to "literature" insofar as people who "get" these references are given a kind of preferential treatment, either in academia or some other social circle. To that end, I would argue that memes, elements of pop culture, and modern retellings of classic stories really SHOULD be taught in classrooms (so long as they are appropriate), to give students a sense of perspective on how these stories developed in context, how we undergo similar processes today, and what we can learn from the "old masters" in a tried and true fashion. Cultures are always evolving, but I fear that public school systems and academic bureaucracy are often too slow to adopt those stories which are "worth telling." However, for educational purposes, I suppose some discretion should be employed by instructors who are attempting to demonstrate a certain theme, nuance, or period of literary history. Whether or not they adhere to the traditional canon should be of little consequence, so long as these lessons are delivered effectively. As a tutor, I remember using Ocarina of Time - a video game - to illustrate the monomyth. In so doing, I feel this can change the way we analyze, criticize, and consume media which, in turn, makes us more critical and analytical of the world we live in, power structures, and cultural boundaries. Then again, I'm an anthropology major - I think everything is cultural. No, I'm not fun at parties.

[@fibbooo1123]

That poem hit me hard, wow! I'm sending it to all the artists in my life immediately :)

[@pyrosianheir]

I think Desmond just recognizes when it's "filming time" and wants us to see him as well as you. Given that cats communicate beyond our range of hearing, maybe he's trying to give us a lecture of his own, about how best to nap. :D

[@MainelyMandy]

Wonderful video, Zoe! That dress is incredible. You are always so stylish!

[@Nerdsammich]

Yes! You should absolutely go through the Dictionary of Culture with us. Please!

[@thomphin3261]

Yes. Make a vidoe the Dictionary of Cultural Literacy. Please. That would be so fun.

[@jujucatjuca]

Great video! Please go over the big canon book

[@theugliestmanever5728]

Loved the nod to the Ferengi there!

[@HopDances]

Great video as usual Zoe! Is Infinite Jest worth tackling? It seems to be a fairly polarizing book.

[@JamesonHuddle]

Stay warm folks! Poor silly Dez..

[@standardhuman8675]

personally, i think we need to put percy jackson (at least the first one) in the literary canon. i know you said cultural importance, teachable stories, and beauty aren't criteria but the lightning thief hits all three, and its a fantastic example of how "childrens books" can be for more than just kids.