This is a thread to rip the cannon a new asshole

Talking of the slave trade, there's a despicable bit in Austen's Mansfield Park where she says of a blatant slave trader: 'Let other pens dwell on pain and misery, I quit them as soon as I can' - yeah, I bet you did, Austen. After all, your watery, sniggering satire couldn't handle the fact that that 'pain and misery' funded practically all of your characters, could it?

Kubrick, whilst he made one of my favourite films has also made five of the most over-rated movies in history...

Scorsese - Mr swear-swear, bang-bang, overated stylist, Mike Leigh, Mark E Smith...

Actually, I prefer Barry Lyndon over ACO. In fact, The Killing aside, it's by far my favourite Kubick. Eyes Wide Shit was dire.

xoxo

Well, yes, she is appalling, but her place in the canon is debatable. Does anyone actually think that her work is any cop apart from fully paid up members of the hardcore libertarian capitalist fringe?

I like them. They are entertaining.

But in the category of sacred cows...I loathe 99% of R.E.M.'s recorded output. Michael Stipe is a complete and total hack without redeeming features of any kind.

Ayn Rand is more an 'artist' who's generally regarded by the academy and public as total schlock but whom I like to defend out of perversity and because she inspired a Rush album. ("Have you read 2112?" my guitar teacher in middle school asked me. "It's a fucking work of creation. They teach it as poetry in first-year English literature at Harvard.") Actually, IIRC, Anthem was a more entertaining read than 1984 or Brave New World (shudders at the memories).

Omar, I'm taking it that you're referring to Smiths-era Morrissey because surely solo Morrissey is not so canonized. (In which case, why not just say the Smiths? Unless you hate Morrissey more than the band, which is not the case IIRC.) That's interesting though because they are not really seen so widely as masters here, except maybe by Britpop fans. The Rolling Stone record guide gave most of their albums middling reviews.

Re Ayn Rand: the academics got it right about her, total total ass. And having family from a genuine totalitarian country, I can attest that Anthem was the silliest, least-readable and realistic of the dystopian novels. (Life in Commie-era Poland was more akin to Brazil or Nabokov's Invitation to a Beheading than anything any of that nasty Russkie bitch Rand's sociopathological fantasies.

Actually, I tend to think that, save Dickens, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and a few others, nineteenth century literature is vastly overrated. Not only the aforementioned Austen and Trollope, but Herman Melville also deserves a good swift kick (I still remember suffering through Billy Budd in grade school ... what utter, utter, UTTER tedious crap). I would exempt "Bartleby the Scrivener," though.

* Naming a character "Grushenka" (which, in Polish and presumably in Russian, means "whore") is a perfect example of the shoddiness and melodramatic slop to which Dostoyevski was hopeless addicted. That is, Grushenka was a "whore" who Ivan was to "save" and upon whose future "holy Mother Russia" was to be redeemed. This sort of crap is "profound" or "great literature"? Spare me please!

And I definetly second Steinbeck. Ugh.

I of course like lots of artists who have been mentioned (The Brothers Karamazov and Orlando were two of the most wonderful reading experiences I've had) but don't feel any great need to defend them because, well, they've already been canonized.

I actually find it hard to answer this question: it's the "loathe without bounds" part that gets me. The closest I come to that is probably with Tortoise and maybe Dickens but neither is all that popular around here anyway. Hendrix, Pink Floyd, Pavement, Television, and Outkast all had at least one good song. Guns 'n' Roses were actually enjoyable despite being the most insanely overrated band ever. Slint and Miles Davis are just not my cup of tea and I can't get that worked up about them. And I can't imagine anyone caring what I think of Eminem or Abba.

I will trouble the guy who named Cage to say how much Cage he's heard.