Rate Norm Macdonald's taste

[Anonymous No.21901991]

>Contrary to his everyman persona, Norm Macdonald was a great lover of literature. Enamored with Russian literature as a teen he cited Eugene Onegin (in the Falen translation, as opposed the Nabokov's which he openly mocked) as his favorite work. Another Pushkin work, The Queen of Spades, was also a favorite along with Dostoevsky's The Idiot. In English literature he noted du Maurier, Graham Green, and John le Carré as his preferred 20th century authors, recommending the latter's early mystery novels, especially A Murder of Quality. Additionally, the sea stories of Patrick O'Brian were a beloved pastime while touring. Austen, Emily Brontë's verse, and the Pickwick Papers were among his older British favorites. When it came to Americans Macdonald enjoyed Updike, Twain, Highsmith, L'Amour, Robert E. Howard, and Heinlein mentioning also, to one interviewer, an obsession with the big game hunting narratives of Peter H. Capstick.

[Anonymous No.21901997]

>>21901991
Isn't his favorite novel In Search For Lost Time

[Anonymous No.21902002]

>>21901991
Where did you get this? I saw him say sci-fi is nonsense. All he did was lie. Even his truths were presented as lies. Enigmatic fella.

[Anonymous No.21902017]

>>21901991
>he cited Eugene Onegin (in the Falen translation, as opposed the Nabokov's which he openly mocked)
Based. Falen mogged Nabokov in that translation. It's very funny that some obscure professor from Missouri or whatever can BTFO one of the best writers of the 20th century.

[Anonymous No.21902040]

>>21901991
I'm still in denial that he's dead. Rest in piece, Norm.

[Anonymous No.21902103]

>>21902017
You'd think you'd need to speak/read Russian fluently to make that assessment. Norm certainly didn't, doubt you do. Why are you faggots such pretentious larpers?

[Anonymous No.21902120]

>>21902103
I think they just mean which translation they enjoyed reading more, not which was more accurate to the original language.

[Yusuf Reis !!WJh3Qmu5nf/ No.21902164]

>>21902017
Nabokov’s revision of the first volume is much better to his original, but Faleen is not a translation. He is a fun read but Nabokov is an actual translation which seeks to capture the essence of Eugene Onegin as a novel. Pushkin called it a novel in verse, and at its core it is a masterpiece as a novel. Faleen butchers the texture in order to make it rhyme in English which I feel makes for a delightful poem but not a masterpiece on the level of Dante and Shakespeare which Onegin is. It would be like liberally translating Shakespeare to keep him in iambic pentameter. The opening line for example he gives as “my uncle a man of firm convictions” and has in the notes the allusion to the ass of the fable but this totally distorts to the allusion which Nabokov gives in his and his notes: “My uncle has most honest principles”. And then he explains in the notes (given in volume two and three) that this refers to an ass in the fable who is told to not to harm the cabbage in a field and so ruins everything else. This is not about firm convictions but about honest or honorable principles/rules and in a clearly ironic sense. Falen also distorts the opening stanza’s uniqueness in that is meant to be a sort of stream-of-consciousness thought inside Eugene’s head (in his notes Nabokov reconstructs what it would be if Eugene were speaking instead of thinking it), and we are sort of lost until Pushkin steps in as narrator and says, allow me to introduce…! Falen has the opening stanza in the form of Eugene addressing the readers: “what deadly boredom, brothers”. As Nabokov notes, he isn’t talking to anyone, but is thinking stream of consciousness to himself, and Falen makes it seem like he is complaining, which is totally out of character for Eugene here and throws off his whole introduction as a Byronic fop.

[࿇ C Œ M G E N V S ࿇ !KNDYqWRDiE No.21902376]

NORM MACDONALD CARECIÓ, TODA SU VIDA, DE LA LITERATURA HISPÁNICA, Y DE EL CATOLICISMO: AQUELLA LE HUBIERA ENRIQUECIDO EL GUSTO; AQUESTA, LE HUBIERA SALVADO EL ALMA.

[Anonymous No.21902387]

>>21902164
> He is a fun read but Nabokov is an actual translation which seeks to capture the essence of Eugene Onegin as a novel.
Falen captures the essence of the work (SOVL). Nabokov just translates literally like an autist (soulless). Falen's version is closer to an actual literary work. I see you keep shilling literal translations over actual literature, here is a website for you so you stop poisoning this website: https://translate.google.com

I don't like you.

[Yusuf Reis !!WJh3Qmu5nf/ No.21902427]

>>21902387
Nabokov makes a clear distinction of translation between linguistic (basically google translate), literal (faithful), and paraphrase. Translation is foremost about fidelity. Falen rapes the work and totally stretches its imagery, abridging Pushkin’s and ramming his own in with gusto. There is no SOVL anymore than someone staging Wagner’s Ring Cycle in African American Vernacular with jazzed-up form of the music complete with two battles is capturing the SOVL of Wagner. The SOVL of Eugene Onegin is Eugene Onegin himself and if you totally misrepresent the character from the outset for the sake of rhyme, you kill what makes the work a masterpiece.

[Anonymous No.21902437]

>>21901991
Why do every midwit faggot shill this hollywood faggot so damn much?

[Anonymous No.21902484]

>>21902002
Odd looking duck

[Anonymous No.21902495]

9/11 was a national tragedy.

[Anonymous No.21902501]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJYz9piwUc8

[Anonymous No.21902502]

>>21902164
>Good prose bad
>Bad prose... with footnotes good

[Anonymous No.21902505]

>>21902437
He was funny. And people would probably say he was also le heckin based or whatever the fuck. Ive always liked Norm and his commentary on pretty much anything hed speak about. An acquired taste, maybe.

[Anonymous No.21902573]

>>21902502
>prose

[Anonymous No.21902782]

>the Pickwick Papers were among his older British favorites

shit, can't believe anyone can have this opinion

>Robert E. Howard
based

[Anonymous No.21902797]

>>21902437
anti-woke, funny and likable, legitimately smart guy, hollywood christian, edgy humor, folksy and mark twain-esque

[Anonymous No.21903620]

>>21902040
He's dead? I didn't even know he was sick.

[Anonymous No.21904787]

>>21903620
>I didn't even know he was sick
Those exact words were my first thought when I caught word of his passing. Little did I know that all his famous comedian friends and people who knew him or were fans of him all said the same exact thing to the point that it kind of became a joke, or irl meme type of thing or something. Kind of strange and funny in a weird way.

[Anonymous No.21904797]

>>21902797
>hollywood christian
What does this mean? Is it just a term for someone who is in showbiz or famous and also christian? That seems strange because I don't think we make that distinction for anything else. Ex. hes a sports christian, he's a music christian, he's a delivery driver christian.

[Anonymous No.21904814]

>>21901991
>tfw norm filters the essence of Kafka's Metamorphosis into a five-minute joke about a moth

[Anonymous No.21904818]

>>21904787
https://youtu.be/FSFRGBZ3U04?t=480

[Anonymous No.21904862]

>>21904818
Oh damn, is that the origins of all this? Norm was the man. Im a big stand-up comedy fan but I never really give a shit about celebrities of any kind. Like if I saw one at the airport or something even if it was someone I'm a huge fan of Id just probably discreetly look at them for a minute from a distance then go on my way. With that being said Norm was one of the handful of people that Id love the opportunity to chat with for a few minutes or have a couple beers with or whatever. I think the phrase 'one of a kind' gets tossed around too freely to really mean much but I believe it's safe to say he was truly one of a kind. RIP in peace Norm.

[Anonymous No.21904886]

>>21901997
That's what he says here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob3yBb2E-uM

[Anonymous No.21905141]

>>21902782
Whats wrong with the pickwick papers, anon? Its one of my favorite work’s by dickens, because it solely lacks his weepy melodrama and preachy behavior. Just good clean fun

[Anonymous No.21905182]

>>21904886
>huckleberry fin is written in the first person and has the word nigger which is problematic
>some kid will be reading it in school and it has that word in it which is a thorny issue
>change huckleberry into a black kid
>problem solved
Genius.

[Anonymous No.21906355]

>>21902484
Hypnotic

[Anonymous No.21906361]

>>21905182
Best joke i've heard.