Commentary from the back of the bench on the need to expand the canon, also known as: a cheap excuse to claim post #666 to the group as my very own. I find it a little amusing that there is this underlying assumption that we must expand the canon in the direction of the obscure. It goes to show the inherent arrogance of the circuit (something which I will admit to being a party to) that some topics are considered "beneath us". If you want a variety in the canon, take an item that hasn't had a question on it in a few tournaments/seasons/years, and write something on it. It's a method I use myself -- at Philly Experiment, I wrote a question on Mark Twain (one which, I may add, mentioned zero of his titles in the question, and focused instead on his other contributions), because I wondered whether there was such a thing as "too famous" in quizbowl. It seemed to go over well in the room I was reading (even if it was powered). The point is, as I read Adam's list of French artists and shudder (Canova? Gros? Girodet? WHO?), I find the trend to be somewhat distrubing. As the qb list is now debating what makes a better player, we are debating what new topics need be introduced. Will the combined effort of all this result in a game inaccesible to the newcomer? I hope not. I'm not saying shrink the canon. I'm saying expand it both ways. There's so much material on George Washington that it MUST be possible to write a good ACF-style (if not ACF-difficulty) tossup on him. It'll test your question-writing ability and make you learn of tangential info, which in turn makes you a better quizbowl player. Try it, you'll like it. Andy Goss (whose best buzz has been beating a team of Maryland alumni to Conway Cabal, which he knew from researching -- yup -- George Washington)
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