When I was in college I took a few literature and creative wring type classes. One concept I remember learning about is referred to as the Canon or the English canon. This is a list, I guess, of literary works that are supposedly important to the development and history of the English language and surrounding culture. One such book that made the cut is the Canturburry Tales. Unfortunately I had to read it in Middle English for my Linguistics class and it went way over my head.
In modern internet culture we use the term canon in a similar, but different way. When someone says something is canon what they mean is it’s part of the “officia;” mythos of whatever they are discussion, such as which Star Wars movies are considered canon, etc.
I tried to adapt this to my own obsessive need to keep endless amounts of lists that I dare not share here. I tried to develop my own canons, not of mythos mind you but more in the classical sense. A canon of action figures, a canon of video games, a canon of horror movies, etc. Oh, by the way I keep dozens upon dozens of notebooks and notepads filled to the brim with useless lists for my own nerdy pursposes. So one of my projects was trying to define my own various canons. Then I decided I didn’t like that term because it implied a definitive offical status I wasn’t really trying to convey.
After I decided to scrap the canons projects, which I had already invested let’s just say way too much time into, I decided to start over with a more focused apporoach. This time i set out to redefine my lists not as any official canon, even being just my own personal canon, and replaced it with the term essentials. I didn’t want to make favorites lists or top… lists because that’s too limiting. I settled on essentials because I figured I could define those by my own terms. As in essential, to me. I figured a canon implied an officality or even some sort of authority I wasn’t fully comfortable with. I don’t know why I decided to share this, I guess lack of sleep makes my mind wander sometimes.
Stephanie Bri 