Canonical Resolutions
What is in store for PCF in 2024? Read on and find out.
My year doesn’t begin in January. I’m on the academic calendar, so the year for me begins in the second half of August and runs through the beginning of May. The rest of May through early August constitutes an amorphous time known as “summer,” when I’m supposed to be doing research and working on articles and books, but I’m usually just trying to avoid melting in the Gulf-Coast heat—or escaping to the mountains. So I’m not normally one for year-end reflections or New Year’s resolutions.
This year, however, has been a bit different because I started Personal Canon Formation, and I feel the need to express my appreciation to all of you readers as 2023 comes to a close, over 800 of you in 52 countries. When I began in July, I had zero subscribers, and so I’m surprised and honored that so many of you allow me to invade your inboxes three times a week.
I would also like to take the opportunity to whet your appetite for what is coming in 2024, both for free and paid subscribers.
New Stuff for Everyone:
First, there will be more of the same sort of writing that has brought us to this point already—a lot more: free-standing essays, additions to the “Clapping Back to Misogyny” series, more extended series on literary and musical topics, reviews and reflections, and the Stack of the Week. Also, the main text of the weekly Bird-Bolts and Cannon-Bullets, my roundup of reading and listening recommendations, which in the past has been exclusively for paid subscribers, will now be free for everyone to read.
Starting in January there will be a new series, tied to my spring graduate course, “Medieval Ecologies from Beowulf to Tolkien,” which will include pieces on Beowulf, two Icelandic sagas, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and The Lord of the Rings. Included in this series will be two reading challenges, the first of which will be open to all subscribers.
Furthermore, each of my graduate students will be starting their own newsletter on this platform during the semester, in which they will record their responses and analyses of our readings. Each week, I will link to one of them in the Sunday post. You may even be moved to subscribe to one or more of them! (I’ve got some really sharp graduate students.)
New and Continuing Features for Paid Subscribers
Reading and listening challenges: I’ve been inspired by
’s essay and story challenges in her wonderful newsletter, along with the brilliant ’s slow reads of Hilary Mantel and Tolstoy, to do something similar with my reading challenges, but with my own spin. You can think of these challenges as “mini courses.” I have three reading challenges planned through the summer, with more to come later in the year, along with other new features:Beowulf challenge: read and discuss Beowulf with me over four weeks, starting January 10th. The main Wednesday essays these weeks will be about Beowulf, and in addition there will be a challenge: discussion prompts and threads, reading suggestions, and additional insights, including a discussion of Tolkien’s influential ideas about the poem. This first challenge will be free for everyone.
The Lord of the Rings challenge: read and discuss The Lord of the Rings with me over eight weeks, starting in the middle of March. Again, the main Wednesday essays will be tied to LOTR, and you can get the extra “challenge” features with a paid subscription.
Emma challenge: read and discuss Jane Austen’s Emma with me over five weeks, starting in the middle of June, with the same structure as the LOTR challenge.
Read Emma with me! Starting in June 2024… More reading challenges in the autumn, TBA.
In between the reading challenges, I will run weekly listening challenges, in which we will consider a piece of music in multiple recordings. It will include a playlist, introductions to the works, and discussions for paid subscribers. I will provide an introduction to the work and the performances, and participants will listen to the various recordings and discuss the differences between the interpretations.
A revamped Canonical Matchmaking. This feature has been running for a while, but it will get a refresh. Paid subscribers send me some information and I provide them with personalized reading and/or listening recommendations. Since most of you read PCF exclusively on email, you have missed out on this feature, which has required the Substack app or website. I’m working on a plan for a new version of this feature, which will operate via email and will, therefore, include more of you. Watch this space for details in the near future.
I hope this sounds enticing, and I’m looking forward to the PCF community growing and evolving in fun and unexpected ways in 2024. Let’s all read and listen more to enrich our lives. I welcome your comments and suggestions.
Happy New Year! And thanks for reading in 2023, from my fancy internet typewriter to yours.
Gosh, you're going to be busy in 2024, John. I 'did' Emma for my school exams, and really enjoyed it. But, you can keep Tolkien 🤣.
Happy New Year!
I've just joined as a paid subscriber and would like to prepare ahead for the Lord of the Rings and Emma challenges, since I don't own copies of either yet. Which editions do you suggest I get?