/lit/ - Literature

Boswell on Johnson
>He enlarged very convincingly upon the excellence of rhyme over blank verse in English poetry. I mentioned to him that Dr. Adam Smith, in his lectures upon composition, when I studied under him in the College of Glasgow, had maintained the same opinion strenuously, and I repeated some of his arguments
Johnson
>"Sir, I was once in company with Smith, and we did not take to each other; but had I known that he loved rhyme as much as you tell me he does, I should have HUGGED him.

re: their not taking to each other
Walter Scott on Smith and Johnson's meeting:
>At Glasgow Johnson had a meeting with Smith, which terminated strangely... Smith, obviously much disappointed, came into a party who were playing at cards. Smith's appearance suspended the amusement, for as all knew he was about to meet Johnson that evening, every one was curious to hear what had passed. Adam Smith, whose temper seemed much ruffled, answered only at first, "He is a brute! he is a brute!"
>Upon closer examination, it appeared that Dr. Johnson no sooner saw Smith than he brought forward a charge against him for something in his famous letter on the death of Hume. Smith said he had vindicated the truth of the statement. "And what did the Doctor say?" was the universal query: "Why, he said — he said" said Smith, with the deepest impression of resentment, "he said — 'You lie!'" "And what did you reply?" "I said, 'You are a son of a bitch!'" On such terms did these two great moralists meet and part, and such was the classic dialogue betwixt them.

>>18992218
>poetry
>translated

Boswell on Johnson
>He enlarged very convincingly upon the excellence of rhyme over blank verse in English poetry. I mentioned to him that Dr. Adam Smith, in his lectures upon composition, when I studied under him in the College of Glasgow, had maintained the same opinion strenuously, and I repeated some of his arguments. JOHNSON: "Sir, I was once in company with Smith, and we did not take to each other; but had I known that he loved rhyme as much as you tell me he does, I should have HUGGED him.

Walter Scott on Smith and Johnson's meeting:
>At Glasgow Johnson had a meeting with Smith, which terminated strangely. John Millar used to report that Smith, obviously much disappointed, came into a party who were playing at cards. The Doctor's appearance suspended the amusement, for as all knew he was about to meet Johnson that evening, every one was curious to hear what had passed. Adam Smith, whose temper seemed much ruffled, answered only at first, "He is a brute! he is a brute!" Upon closer examination, it appeared that Dr. Johnson no sooner saw Smith than he brought forward a charge against him for something in his famous letter on the death of Hume. Smith said he had vindicated the truth of the statement. "And what did the Doctor say?" was the universal query: "Why, he said — he said" said Smith, with the deepest impression of resentment, "he said — 'You lie!'" "And what did you reply?" "I said, 'You are a son of a bitch!'" On such terms did these two great moralists meet and part, and such was the classic dialogue betwixt them.

>I observed that Mr. Hume, some of whose writings were very unfavourable to religion, was, however, a Tory. JOHNSON. "Sir, Hume is a Tory by chance, as being a Scotchman; but not upon a principle of duty, for he has no principle. If he is anything, he is a Hobbist."

reminds me of the parliamentary debates Samuel Johnson made up for a newspaper

>...he constructed, like Thucydides or Livy, imaginary speeches... Full of generalities though the speeches are, none the less to fabricate debates on so many topics — home and foreign affairs, matters naval, military, and financial — without tumbling into gross absurdities, required formidable ingenuity and general knowledge. Further, Johnson says he often wrote three columns (1,350 words) an hour. That is over twenty-two words a minute...
>Its creative effort was taken by readers as mere reporting; and it proved seriously misleading. But the public was determined to be deceived. Johnson's fabrications got incorporated in the collections of Parliamentary debates published by Torbuck (1741-2), Chandler (1742-4), and Timberland (1742-3).
>One of his debates spread deception abroad by being translated into French, German, and Spanish. Two speeches he had put in the mouth of Chesterfield were reprinted as genuine a generation later by Dr Maty in his lordship's Miscellaneous Works (1777).
>Smollett, though warned by Johnson, used the speeches as authentic in his history. And even in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries historians and editors have sometimes fallen into Johnson's trap. The most famous instance however occurred, probably in the 1760s, at a dinner given by Foote, when Dr Philip Francis, translator of Demosthenes, praised a certain speech of Pitt's as superior to anything by the Athenian, and "the best he had ever read" — only to be floored by Johnson's calm remark: "That speech I wrote in a garret in Exeter Street".

>>18394986
There has been many more male writers than female writers over literary history. Literature, until recent, has been a male artistic pursuit; The same can be said of music and painting. Besides the big three, you can name any male writer that can be matched by any female writer (for the most part).
>>18395187
I agree that there is no female artist at the level of Dante or Shakespeare or Homer, but if you are willing to throw ceravntes and tolstoy into the mix of greatest, then George Eliot deserves a spot. I genuinely believe Eliot should have a greater literary position than she does. Now there has never been any female poet even coming close to any prominent male poet; they just don't exist. The 1900s brings in another major female novelist in the form of Gertrude Stein. Her work rivals joyce and I feel she is wildly influential in the literature of the past 80 years. She could even direct literature for the next 100 years.

>>18390986
Yes, it's written in the Scots dialect, not much different from the Middle English language.

What is read with delight is commonly retained, because pleasure always secures attention but the books which are consulted by occasional necessity, and perused with impatience, seldom leave any traces on the mind

>>18248129
>The stupid thing is that Ameritards do this with all activities
I remember when I first made friends with Americans, when we hung out they had to shotgun beers and play stupid drinking games in liue of conversation. I'd never needed to play games to get shitfaced before.

To answer OP's relevant literary question, pic rel

>>18135595
>Holy fuck burgers

Ossianfag, I see you.