Typically referred to as the “Canon of American Classics,” but I personally resent the western centrism of that. I think one of the primary issues with the heightened status and inflated importance of the canon of classics taught in schools today is the extreme colonial bias. Even though plenty of the books on that list I do truely love and think are genuine master pieces, I think I developed my appreciation for them inspite of the fart-sniffing academic worship of “the great American novel,” certainly not because of it. Opening the catagory up to novels outside the narrative of the holy-than-thou western cultural touchstone could at least break up the pageantry of it a little. Give students room again to develop a personal relationship with the narratives by expanding it to a more global outlook. Rising tides raise all ships, you know.

My vote would be for No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai being included. It has a lot of extreme subject matter for sure, but its not that much more violent or depressing than, like, Lord of the Flies or Of Mice and Men.

As a side note I’m surprised Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy hasn’t become kind of officially included in the “Great American Novel” Canon yet. Too dusturbing for highschoolers, I know, but that it hasn’t started to make it’s way onto those sorts of reading lists.

Both novels and plenty more deserve to be counted as such way more than anything Ayn Rand ever wrote. Boils my blood still I was forced to read that bullshit in highschool. More disturbing than anything else was that I was expected to pretend I wasn’t reading blatant right-wing philosophical self-insert Gary-Stue dubcon fanfic half-heartedly pretending to be a narrative. Only time I’ve been expected to act stupider than I was as a stupid teenager.