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/lit/ - Literature

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1830569 No.1830569 [Reply] [Original]

http://thisrecording.com/today/2009/8/3/in-which-these-are-the-100-greatest-writers-of-all-time.html

10 Marcel Proust
9 Anton Chekhov
8 Nabokov
7 Samuel Beckett
6 John Milton
5 Gertrude Stein (haven't read)
4 Joyce
3 Shakespeare
2 Kafka
1 Faulkner

What do you think? I feel it's pretty good list. Shakespeare needs to be number 1 though.

In b4 Where is George R.R. Martin?

>> No.1830582

Faulker being #1 is ridiculous and Gertrude was most definitely picked for her being a female. otherwise, it's nice, I'd make some adjustments here and there but it'll do.

Where's Tao Lin?

>> No.1830586

Good list. I'd put Camus in there but I know there are many who wouldn't.

>> No.1830588
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1830588

>Kafka

>#2

no. just no

>> No.1830592
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1830592

That website is atrocious and should be banished from the internet.

>> No.1830595

good list

terrible order

liek, awful

reeks of edgy undergrad hipster

>> No.1830598

any such list is utterly lowerclass, anon

>> No.1830600

>Stein, Chekhov and Beckett
>no Dante, Blake or Yeats

>> No.1830602

Is Proust really that good?

>> No.1830608

>kafka
>above shakespeare
>above nabokov

uhm no

>> No.1830611

Good list but Stephen King should be in the top 10

>> No.1830618

Shakespeare should always be #1. The list is crap though.

>> No.1830620

I really like This Recording - but they're Faulkner whores for shore. He is not #1, sorry, deal with it. I'd put Shakespeare and Joyce above him; not to mention Tolstoy (56??), and Flaubert (46?!?) and Salinger (XX??????). Faulker's maybe top 10. (At least Dostoevsky got #11.

Overall though I'm reading the list and they do have some interesting points to make.

>> No.1830622

>>1830608
Kafka above Nabokov is not controversial at all.

>> No.1830629

>>1830620
Flaubert and Salinger above Faulkner? That's nearly as silly as this list.

>> No.1830639

>no Camus

Oh wow.

>> No.1830649

>>1830639
You should have noticed there was no Hugo or Dumas first.

>> No.1830653

>>1830602

he's even better actually

>> No.1830671

Some guy did a collection of /lit/'s favourite authors.

It came out as:

10. Albert Camus (9)
9. Ray Bradbury (9)
8. David Foster Wallace (11)
7. William Faulkner (11)
6. Franz Kafka (12)
5. Cormac McCarthy (13)
4. Fyodor Dostoyevsky (15)
3. Thomas Pynchon (16)
2. James Joyce (16)
1. Kurt Vonnegut (26)

So there's some overlap, I suppose.

>> No.1830688

>Do not post the following outside of /b/: racism

Reported.

>> No.1830694

>>1830688
Wat

>> No.1830695

>>1830671
>1. Kurt Vonnegut (26)

Really? Does he really deserve to be number 1?

>> No.1830697

Camus shouldn't be in there. His writings were examples of a philosophy, they weren't pure. That's not literature, that's a textbook.

>> No.1830699
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1830699

>>1830697

>> No.1830702

DOSTOEVSKY, TOLSTOY AND EVERY OTHER GREAT RUSSIAN AUTHOR OTHER THAN CHEKHOV AND NABOKOV (IF HE COUNTS)

WHERE ARE YOU

>> No.1830703

STEIN

You've got to be kidding. That is pathetic, and I admire Stein, while most people I know don't care for or about her.

WHERE'S VIRGINIA WOOLF

>> No.1830715

>>1830697
What is any fiction except an example of the author's personal philosophy? Just because he called it that - philosophy - doesn't make it any different from what other people write. Calling his works textbooks is just stupid, in my opinion.

>> No.1830724

Faulkner is number one because that was written by Americans and no other reason..

To say James Joyce is not the greatest writer ever to live is to not understand or even know enough about James Joyce.

>> No.1830755

>>1830695
He does when your community is made up of very young adults and/or teenagers.

>> No.1830761
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1830761

>>1830724

>> No.1830769

>>1830724
Get the fuck out of here kid. Joyce isn't even top 3 and Shakespeare is 1.

>> No.1830772

>>1830695
To say Kurt Vonnegut is in the top 100 makes you a fucking idiot.

>> No.1830776

"Also, it's probably about time for everybody to admit that The Waste Land is totally boring."
Huh?
It was nice to see Woolf coming in at 14. And Faulkner's pretty much my favourite author and all but no way is he the best writer of all time.

>> No.1830777
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1830777

>>1830772

But getting butthurt about an anonymous opinion is totally cooooool.

>> No.1830782

The guy who wrote this article is way too smarmy. I can't even understand the point he's trying to get across because he worms in an unfunny, forced joke.

>> No.1830783

>>1830777
Where was I butt hurt? I was just stating a fact.

>> No.1830785

What the fuck is this faggotry?

Where's Dostoyevsky? Where's Tolstoy?

Fuck out.

>> No.1830788

>>1830785
They are both on the list.. Dostoevsky is even number 11, which is probably too high.

>> No.1830790

>>1830755
I thought /lit/ had a more diverse community in term of the age range of the average member, more than most of the on 4chan.

>> No.1830802

>>1830790
I don't think it does considering the topics discussed here.

>> No.1830811

>>1830788

Too high? At 11? Madness.

And where the fuck is Hemingway.

Gertrude Stein my arse.

>> No.1830814

>>1830671
This is the worst list.

>> No.1830816

SERIOUSLY, WHY IS STEIN EVEN IN THERE? THIS IS WHAT I MEAN, PEOPLE ALWAYS PLACE FEMALE AUTHORS HIGHER THAN THEY ARE, SIMPLY BECAUSE OF THEIR GENDER.

SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN A GOOD WRITER, BETTER THAN AVERAGE, SURE. BUT TOP 10 EVER? GO FUCK YOURSELF.

KAFKA SHOULDN'T BE EVEN IN THE TOP 10, AND TO SAY THAT FAULKNER IS 1.

I LOVE HOW THESE LISTS ARE NEVER CONSISTENT WITH EACH OTHER.

>> No.1830828

>>1830811
>Too high? At 11? Madness

Considering it's the greatest authors of all time? Yeah.

>> No.1830829
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1830829

>>1830816

Most people don't like to admit that there aren't any female literary giants.

Similar to the "greatest lyricist" thread going on currently on the first page, someone threw Joanna Newsom in the mix with Bob Dylan and company.

While that is laughable, I think that the person was actually serious in her inclusion.

>> No.1830834

So /lit/, who do you think should be on the top 10 greatest authors of all time?

>> No.1830835

Incorrect challenge. Faulkner as number 1? Stein above Dostoyevsky or Tolstoy. Too ludicrous to consider. Run home to mummy, schoolgirls.

>> No.1830845

KIND OF UNRELATED, BUT WHAT'S YOUR FAVOURITE CHEKHOV STORY/PLAY GUYS?

I'M CURRENTLY READING AN ANONYMOUS STORY

>> No.1830852

>>1830829
>Most people don't like to admit that there aren't any female literary giants.

But there are. Grow up.

>> No.1830857

WAIT. Why the hell do so many people think Shakespeare should be #1? I've read quite a bit of his stuff, and while a lot of it is really clever, none of it has amazed me at all, and some of it even came off as kind of hacky. I think both his poetry and his screenplays would be better described as "witty" than "literary." Surely no one SERIOUSLY thinks he's the greatest fucking writer of all time?

>> No.1830866

You need to stop being involved with words now and go away and sleep under a tree somewhere.

>> No.1830873

>>1830845
In Exile is my favorite. Followed by A Day in the Country, The Black Monk and Anna Round the Neck. How about you?

>> No.1830876

>Shakespeare needs to be number 1 though.

And here's where you're wrong.

As to the list:
>58. Emily Brontë/Charlotte Brontë
Fucking terrible. Why not just do Wordsworth/Shelley as one person while you're a it.
>Toni Morrison on the list
>all the way up at 50
No, never.
>Walt Whitman
>Recommended reading: "O Captain! O Captain!"
We should be able to get the site shut down for this.
>Wordsworth
>Emotion recalled in a moment of tranquility was a cute idea, but it really only worked in the case of the daffodils. No one tried harder, and no one failed as beautifully, as this master.
>only worked in the case of the daffodils
>Wordsworth failed
These people know nothing of poetry.
>Nabokov
>Lolita is probably more important than The Odyssey. It is better written, at least.
Fuck this site.
>Milton
>The king of all the poets
>The greatest poet of this time or any other.
Yes; no.

>> No.1830884

>>1830857

I didn't fully appreciate Shakespeare until I learned more about literature. He wrote a lot of really great stuff and was a very important guy. I wouldn't call him #1 though, that's pure pandering.

>> No.1830890

I'm okay with Faulkner being #1. There are about 10 writers on that list (Hemingway, Tolstoy, Melville, Milton, Chekhov, Woolf, etc) that could be #1. I do agree with the claim that Faulkner was a master of language and, even though he never quite went as far, he did for The South what Joyce did for the Irish: put a people, language, and culture on paper and made it stick.

>> No.1830891

>>1830884
>the list is about great writers and not important writers

>> No.1830898

>>1830857

why are you reading it? they're plays. watch shakespeare plays live acted by very good actors. or, next best and much more conveniently, watch some videos online. if you've only been reading him, it'll be a revelation

>> No.1830921

>HEY GUYS LOOK AT THIS ALL MY FAVORITE CHOICES ARE ACTUALLY EVERYONES FAVORITE CHOICES!@11Q
Would you really believe this if someone said it? Probably not. So why are you believing it if someone types it up on a fancy webpage with frilly credentials?

>> No.1830973

Was anyone else surprised at the lack of Thomas Wolfe? He was pretty much America's Tolstoy and probably one of the last classical novelists before Modernism took over.

>> No.1830974

>>1830921
it's just a fun conversation starter you goon

>> No.1830988

>>1830973

He's one of my favorite writers, but he really gets the shaft, so no, I wasn't surprised.

>> No.1830989

>>1830974
I think the point was that the list only contains authors commonly recognized as great in lit classes and the like, when in reality, given the number of writers that are out there, no individual's personal, well-reasoned list of greats should contain more than a couple such writers.

Not that I entirely agree with the point (although I mostly do), but that was the point. I think.

>> No.1830990

>>1830974
>conversation starter
>sages conversation
THATS MR. GOON TO YOU PUNK

>> No.1831001
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1831001

Does any author really deserve to be #1?

>> No.1831004

>>1831001

Yes.

Tao Lin.

>> No.1831008

Man I always forget This Recording exists for several months at a time and end up wasting two hours reading all the entries I missed when I am reminded that it does

>> No.1831009

>Where is Cormac McCarthy?

>> No.1831022

>>1830876
>Saying Shakespeare isn't number 1.

See, anything you say can't be taken seriously after that.

>> No.1831027

>>1831022

Sorry I disagreed with your grade 10 teacher. :(

>> No.1831032
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1831032

George Eliot wuz robbed

>Somewhere between the worst person who was a great poet and the greatest poet who was an asshole sits Pound.

lol at this though

>> No.1831037

>>1830857
>WAIT. Why the hell do so many people think Shakespeare should be #1?

Shakespeare is the greatest author ever, It's absurd to say otherwise.

>> No.1831041

>>1831037

This is what highschool students and starting undergrads actually believe.

>> No.1831045

>>1831037
How is that absurd? All he ever wrote were plays and poetry. That alone would disqualify him at all in plenty of people's minds. Shakespeare is probably the most influential English writer ever and is pretty much necessary knowledge, but it's not like he even had the opportunity to be the "best". Joyce (for example), did more with English than Shakespeare ever did.

>> No.1831053

>>1831027
I have no clue what my 10th grade teachers opinion on literature was, it was 10 years ago. I remember she was a huge dyke though. Shakespeare is the greatest, it's not up for debate. You just have immature taste.

>> No.1831059

>>1831045
>Joyce (for example), did more with English than Shakespeare ever did

Dude, just stop. You are embarrassing yourself.

>> No.1831061

>>1831041
And life long literary critics who know more about literature that you ever will.

>> No.1831067

>>1831053

Can you defend this claim other than "Because Harold Bloom says so"? I think Shakespeare is great, definitely top 3, but I don't see why you think that he must necessarily be #1.

>> No.1831068

>>1831059
Do you actually have anything to contribute or are you just trolling here? The general assumption we'd have to make is that you know nothing of Shakespeare (or Joyce).

>> No.1831069

>>1830569

CTRL+F
Somerset Maugham
F Scott Fitzgerald
No results found

Aw.

I felt that Joyce, Dante, Homer and Hemingway should have been higher.

>> No.1831071

Homer isn't even real.

>> No.1831074

>>1831069
you really are on maugham's dick dude

>> No.1831073

>>1831069
I DON'T THINK YOU CAN GO A DAY WITHOUT MENTIONING MAUGHAM

>> No.1831081

>>1831074

Yes but I really enjoy his writing.

>> No.1831107

Where the hell is John Donne!

>> No.1831130
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1831130

>carson mccullers above hemingway

>> No.1831133

What if the ghost of Somerset Maugham hired a social media intern off Craigslist from beyoooond the graaaaave

Of Human Spookage

>> No.1831136

>>1831133

The internet would shut down for all the throngs of people rushing out to buy it.

But seriously, I shall stop extolling Maugham as much as I do.

>> No.1831153

>>1831107

He's not Intro to Lit enough, I guess.

>> No.1831357

Check complete list

>no Umberto Eco
>no Hermann Hesse
>Henry Miller #92

Fuck you. Fuck you.

>> No.1832030

>Gertrude Stein

Gee, sure is feminist agenda in here...