The Canon

The machinations behind the study of literature at a high school stage would come largely contained within an arbitrarily decided canon of literary works. This canon would prove to be controversial, fuelling argument amongst even the most esteemed literary geniuses. [1] Indeed such a canon can never truly exist although its contents can be disputed and eventually agreed by a board of self-acknowledging intellectuals (also known as the board of studies in Australia).

Many would place canonised texts as a direct portrait of literary brilliance but is it truly fair to compare the Bible to the many books that derive a portion of their ideals and values to such an important document. In essence the argument is can Stephanie Meyer's Twilight franchise, although having experienced (and still is experiencing) almost worldwide commercial success, compare to the Bible in its so called canonisation capability. By sheer monetary success, both fictional novels are competitive. The Bible has however had many more centuries to ascertain greater success with many adaptations of stories and has been archived as the number one best selling book of all time [2]. However in recent years, Twilight has also spawned many movies and its franchise has been consistently growing in fan base as each successive part of its story is released. In terms of social influence, it would be near impossible to say that the Bible is less than Twilight however the debate still remains competitive if considerations of time are taken into account. The Bible was written countless centuries ago (a relative date of c. 1455 to 55 can be dated for the English version [2]) and thus Twilight still has many years to progress in influence given its first edition publication date of 2005 [3]. The Bible has spawned a religion and even influenced an entire structure of society based somewhat entirely upon its teachings. [4] Twilight cannot be discounted in its influence either as it has nonetheless created a widespread obsession with vampires or references to it remain exponentially increasing with time. [5] Nevertheless, most councils would proscribe the Bible as a highly commendable read and Twilight as mere ‘teenage angst’ putrid thus where does the criteria in which the Bible is deemed canonised and Twilight not. Perhaps time is the crucial contributing factor to the decision but then with this considered perhaps in several years time English students would read Meyer instead of Shakespeare. Indeed i am not saying that Twilight contains as much literary brilliance as Shakespeare or the Bible's authors (which position i believe is attributed to the many disciples of Jesus).

It must be stated that it is near foolish to compare the Bible to Twilight. Even comparison of the two texts in respect to the point of view that the Bible is above, and somewhat beyond Twilight in all facets of literature (whatever such a term encompasses) is also equally idiotic. It must be critiqued though the rationale behind an arbitrarily decided canon list and the many individuals who self-proclaim themselves as literary geniuses, and as such decide which texts are of literary brilliance and otherwise "better as firewood" texts. The stress is upon the ideal that literary brilliance is unique to all texts and thus comparison between texts is somewhat idiotic although the basis of at least the majority of high school English study.

As a rather moronic friend would state: "to bone or not to bone. That is the question." [6] Such a quotation would retain a different literary signifigance to the original but nonetheless substantial if not similar.

References:
[1] Two such genuises: lifemadeoflego.blogspot.com, tehjourney.blogspot.com
[2] http://home.comcast.net/~antaylor1/bestsellingbooks.html
[3] http://www.listal.com/list/twilight-series
[4] http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/christianity/history/history_1.shtml
[5] Does it really need to be referenced?
[6] http://reekinsluts.blogspot.com/

Further Reading:
http://blogs.bible.org/tapestry/sue_bohlin/the_appeal_of_twilight (If you have time to read anything, read this!)
http://www.abc.net.au/religion/stories/s817468.htm
http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/twilight.html