Loading the Canon

Today's word: Canonical.

Authorized.  Respected.  Accepted.

We who were once English majors understand the word to refer to those works firmly ensconced in the literary pantheon.  Shakespeare, of course, but also Milton and Chaucer.  Tolstoy and Dostoevsky.  Melville and Hawthorne.  Roth and Bellow.  And on and on.  Indeed, one indicator of a work's canonical status is that it is commonly taught in English classes.

There are other ways that authors or their works may be considered canonical.  One would have to say that if a person's name becomes an adjective, that person is in the canon.  Thus, whether or not they are familiar with the author's work, most semi-educated people will understand a reference to a Kafkaesque situation or a Machiavellian politician.  These are canonical figures.

Even more interesting is when a literary reference from a specific work becomes an everyday part of the language.  What's interesting is that people may use these terms without having read the work from whence they spring, or, indeed, even knowing that these terms derive their meaning from literary works.  "Quixotic" comes to mind, especially given that the word is pronounced 'kwik-SOT-ic' not 'key-HO-tic.'  We imagine many people would never consider naming their daughters Lolita and marvel that anyone ever would, not realizing that the word itself is perfectly innocent, as were most women with that name prior to 1955.  In these post-Patriot Act days, we all know what it means for Big Brother to be watching us, even if we've never visited Orwell's Oceania.  And what about catch-22?  So descriptive of a certain part of the human condition, what did people say before Joseph Heller's novel?  No-win situation?  Damned if you do, damned if you don't?  Close, but neither conveys the futility and irony captured by that simple, mock-bureaucratic euphemism.

What brought this to mind today was a sudden recognition that we have added another word to this canonical list.  We saw a film clip on Yahoo! about a pair of raccoon kits rescued from inside a Pepsi machine, where they had taken up residence.  Who got them out?  Someone identified as a raccoon whisperer.

Yes, "whisperer" is the latest word to transcend its literary origins!

You may object that this is hardly a new word, and, if you are referring to its meaning as "one who whispers," you're correct.  That, however, is not the sense in which the word has entered the canon.  We are referring, instead, to 'whisperer's meaning of "one who speaks soothingly to recalcitrant animals."  This meaning came to general attention thanks to "The Horse Whisperer" (1995), a novel by Nicholas Evans, and, perhaps more significantly, a 1999 movie of the same name directed by and starring Robert Redford.  Personally, we are more comfortable with the canonization of Redford than of Evans; the New York Times described the novel as "sentimentally bloated."  But it just goes to show that a work doesn't need to be a masterpiece to achieve a certain canonization.

Has the word truly entered the lexicon?  Well, you tell us:

On Google:

Horse whisperer: Approximately 693,000 results

Dog whisperer:            Approximately 834,000 results

Cat whisperer: Approximately 38,400 results

Guinea pig whisperer: Approximately 194 results

Giraffe whisperer: Approximately 138 results

Platypus whisperer: Approximately 1,240 results  (So there are more platypus whisperers than guinea pig whisperers?  Seems unlikely.)

Halibut whisperer: 9 results

Wait a minute: HALIBUT WHISPERER?!?  Wouldn't he drown?

So thank you, Nicholas Evans.  You solved a problem we didn't know we had and gave us a word we didn't know we needed.  Your little spot in the canon is assured.

(Image from www.tanaku.com)