7.16.2018

big data

The day may be coming when canonicity is measured by tallying Google searches.

2 comments:

Joseph Hutchison said...

This raises good questions. If not Google...? Even more basically: Does the Canon matter and to whom? Is it a Canon at all if it matters only to one percent of readers? Does an increase to 5 or 10 or 20 percent increase Canonicity? Where do you and I fall in all this? I.e., are you more H. Bloomish than I am?

Fun stuff!

JforJames said...

As you say it's a big and complicated question. You and I, being insiders to poetry, will each have larger and more personal 'canons'. But capital P-oetry's canon, as it might be contained in a single (albeit fat) volume, is probably never going to be the same thing. It will have more influences from sources outside the academy, which is a good thing, and it will need to 'build itself out' continually. If the canon was once a great edifice, that edifice will have to be added on to, building out more wings, building more levels, both up and down, and most of all, it must have more doors.