Assignment Literary Canon Response

Assignment: Literary Canon Response 

The literature I consider to be part of the United States current literary canon is; Historical Fiction where authors like Stephen King interweaves horror with historical facts such as in his book “Heart of Atlantis”. Also Westerns like the author Louis L’Amour the best selling frontier storyteller who wrote books like “The Mountain Valley War”. Science Fiction authors such as H.G. Wells who wrote “The Time Machine”. Mystery novels written by authors like John Grisham author of “The Brethren”.

Like with the author Louis L’Amour he wrote about the western days that is part of the United States culture and in some areas in the west still exists to a point. So even if the western days disappear we still have great authors who wrote about them so we can still remember and imagine what it was like to live back in those days. Stephen King horror author adds in historical facts a majority of his books; his books reflect what some people in the United States may or may not actually live through. Science Fiction is in my opinion a way to dream about the future, what could happen or not happen, inventions of new things put onto paper and eventually pulled from the stories to create the actual thing. Mysteries reflect the United States cultural tradition because not only do a lot of people enjoy reading mysteries but life is a mystery.

What I consider to be part of my personal literary canon consists of a mixture. Just looking at my books shelves I see Horror- Stephen King, Anne Rice, Western- Louis L’Amour, Fiction-Anne Tyler, V.C. Andrews, Non Fiction-Naomi Judd and David Niven, Science Fiction-John Norman, Fantasy- Robert V.S. Redick, as well as some Legal by authors like James Patterson. My literary canon consists of just about everything I read, as long as it keeps my attention I will continue to read it and I do prefer series over single readings, such as Katherine Kurtz’s Deryni series.