Maybe the canon means ‘repetition’, because reading through Native Speaker by Chang-Rae Lee was like reading through any of the other books that we have encountered throughout the semester. I wouldn’t be so hard on this book, but even with Toni Morrison’s Sula, it seems like these books were only inducted into the American canon because they are different ethnic people in similar circumstances. Yea, I went there.
I can take Henry and put him into any other situation in any other book, just change his skin tone and he’d be in almost the same boat as lets say, Nick from The Great Gatsby. I’m not trying to knock Chang-Rae Lee, he worked hard to write the book and his work has already been shown the recognition that it deserves. Canonical though? I guess, because it has similar themes to those in other stories. One thing that irks me, and I guess I can see clearly now, is that these themes are so similar that it just sometimes doesn’t seem original.
My teacher Wandia Njoya told me though that nothing is original, that imitation is inevitable. If it is, than the canon will be filled with books that are basically knock offs of eachother? Damn, The Mountains of Madness should be on that list, just because it’s the most interesting book I’ve read in this class all semester. It’s much more entertaining, anyways.
April 26, 2007 at 3:15 pm
Wow… so how do you really feel?? haha.. no I completly agree with you. These books do seem to be the same thing over and over and over again. All these books seem to be about what ethnicity you are and how you choose to fight your battles. How about something different for a change?!?!? This book is pretty much just like every other book, however, I did find this one to be the most interesting of them all. I can’t compare to Mountains of Madness because I did not read that book.
April 29, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I agree, and disagree with you. It was a lot like the other books we’ve read, but I think because it was a different background that we don’t usually hear about, like african american’s, it opens a new perspective to what was happening in the book.
April 29, 2007 at 11:30 pm
Tony
You’re right. There is no such thing as an origional idea. I wish however they’d take different types of books and put them in the canon. I am sick of reading about some minority character who doesn’t know who they are. Give me a break. It is the same as the others. Great work man. You nailed my opinion on the head.
Dawn