Canon fodder: Jack London and the conflicting aesthetics of a poor boy done good

Jack London's reputation has floundered in academic circles during the 80 years since his death. His major problems have been that he produced much more work that is undeniably shoddy than work that is of literary quality; that his social philosophies are now not only outdated but more often than not blatantly incorrect, if not reprehensible in current times; that instead of embracing the values of the literary establishment he shuns it. He is a writer who came from poverty and rose out of that poverty. His work displays sympathies for the poor in the form of his championing of the Socialist cause; concurrently, however, his work embraces Nietzschean/Social Darwinistic tendencies that favor a world view that can be perceived as Fascist.;Canon Fodder: Jack London and the Aesthetics of a Poor Boy Done Good examines Jack London's essays, short stories, and novels with the intent of illuminating the root causes of London's contradictory social views, trying to explain that the views are not as contradictory as they might seem. During the course of this examination, London's aesthetic principles are delineated and shown to be as seemingly contradictory as his social views, wavering between the aesthetics of what we acknowledge as the traditional literary canon and the aesthetics of hack writers who write only to make money through the sales of commercial work. The didacticism of London's work, though seen as a fault, is argued to be integral to its position as literature. Jack London resolves his contradictory social and aesthetic philosophies in a handful of short stories and in his masterpieces, The Call of the Wild and White Fang. Works examined en route to these conclusions include The War of the Classes, Revolution and Other Essays, The Complete Short Stories of Jack London, The People of the Abyss, The Iron Heel, and Before Adam.;Writers of humble origins and whose sympathies are with the concerns of the poor rather than the aesthetics of the upper classes are beginning to occupy a more important position in letters, and Jack London's work is increasing in importance as a consequence.