/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.2797863]

which country produces the best authors /lit/?
pic related, it's my choice

[Anonymous No.2797877]

How many contemporary Irish and Russian authors do you know of, OP?

[Anonymous No.2797901]

>>2797877
I was talking about the entire span of literary history, not just contemporary writers, and I was asking for opinions on what country produces the best ones.

[Anonymous No.2797910]

France.

It's just obvious.

Second place goes to Britain.

[Anonymous No.2797927]

>>2797901
I know, and that's nice. I was asking you if you knew of any contemporary writers from either country.

[Anonymous No.2797928]

>>2797863

James Joyce can't be included in Irish writers, because he was born in Britain, before Irish independence. And, like all good Irishmen, he got the fuck out of the bogs and the violence as soon as he was big enough to run.

[Anonymous No.2797944]

>>2797877

Not OP, but if you're interested in comtemporary Irish authors then should definitely check out John Banville. And of course Roddy Doyle is a given at this stage. Sebastian Barry is worth a look as well. Also, Seamus Heaney is still writing so I could probably throw him kin there as well.

[Anonymous No.2797954]

>>2797927
Roddy Doyle, Maeve Binchy, and Fank Delaney are some Irish ones, can't think of too many contemporary Russians but I'm obviously thinking of the golden age when I think of Russian writers.

[Anonymous No.2797956]

I think you've got it right, OP.

[Anonymous No.2797959]

I used to like Conor Cruise O'Brien, then I stopped liking him - I think he stopped being good.

Seamus Heaney may well be the greatest living poet although he was born in Uslter, so he's technically British, whether he likes it or not.

Russian writing largely serves to allow hipster wannabes to convince themselves they've experienced something profound, while in fact they've been inluenced by a Victorian translator.

[Anonymous No.2797964]

>>2797959

>implying people born in Northern Ireland don't qualify for natural Irish citizenship

[Anonymous No.2797970]

>>2797964

>implying that matters

[Anonymous No.2797974]

trawl thread, and everybody knows it.

[Anonymous No.2797980]

>>2797928
The fact that the limeys still occupied the country at the time doesn't mean that it wasn't Ireland, Joyce was the quintessential Irish author, Finnegan's Wake is the quintessential Irish book, Joyce was even once referred to as a one man literary IRA.
>Joyce can't be include in Irish writers
c'mon son

[Anonymous No.2797994]

>>2797974

Other boards treat trolls properly, incorporate them, and ignore them. So let's try that.

Here's a poem by Seamus Heaney, what does /lit/ think?

implying /lit/ thinks

[Anonymous No.2798006]

>>2797994

Death Of A Naturalist

All year the flax-dam festered in the heart
Of the townland; green and heavy headed
Flax had rotted there, weighted down by huge sods.
Daily it sweltered in the punishing sun.
Bubbles gargled delicately, bluebottles
Wove a strong gauze of sound around the smell.
There were dragon-flies, spotted butterflies,
But best of all was the warm thick slobber
Of frogspawn that grew like clotted water
In the shade of the banks. Here, every spring
I would fill jampotfuls of the jellied
Specks to range on window-sills at home,
On shelves at school, and wait and watch until
The fattening dots burst into nimble-
Swimming tadpoles. Miss Walls would tell us how
The daddy frog was called a bullfrog
And how he croaked and how the mammy frog
Laid hundreds of little eggs and this was
Frogspawn. You could tell the weather by frogs too
For they were yellow in the sun and brown
In rain.
Then one hot day when fields were rank
With cowdung in the grass the angry frogs
Invaded the flax-dam; I ducked through hedges
To a coarse croaking that I had not heard
Before. The air was thick with a bass chorus.
Right down the dam gross-bellied frogs were cocked
On sods; their loose necks pulsed like sails. Some hopped:
The slap and plop were obscene threats. Some sat
Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.
I sickened, turned, and ran. The great slime kings
Were gathered there for vengeance and I knew
That if I dipped my hand the spawn would clutch it.

[Anonymous No.2798013]

>>2797980

>implying Irish people call the English "limeys".

confirmed for Amerilard who says "hey, I'm irish" whenever there's no-one around to call him on his shit.

>Irish-american

lel

[Anonymous No.2798022]

>>2798006

dude's got an amazing sense for the colors and textures of different words

[Anonymous No.2798025]

>>2798013
Oh right they call them faggots

[Anonymous No.2798031]

>>2798022

Frogs never look the same way again after you think of them

>............. ........sat
>Poised like mud grenades, their blunt heads farting.

[Anonymous No.2798036]

>>2798025
>>2798025

>faggots
>further americanisms

Stop digging your hole deeper and contribute if you want. Otherwise, don't. Who cares?

Do you like Irish writing, or are you just here for the anti-craic?

[Anonymous No.2798039]

China.

I'm sure /lit/ won't agree, as barely anyone here reads anything outside the Western world. China has a literary history longer than any European country by more than a millennium, and it's been quite consistently amazing.

[Anonymous No.2798047]

>>2798036
>digging your hole deeper
you know a lot about people getting deep into holes don't you
Irish blood is Irish blood no matter what country your family immigrated to.

[Anonymous No.2798057]

>>2798047

Growing up in the culture matters more than blood, mate.

[Anonymous No.2798065]

>>2798036

Speaking of digging a hole, another poem from Death of a Naturalist:

Digging


Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests; as snug as a gun.

Under my window a clean rasping sound
When the spade sinks into gravelly ground:
My father, digging. I look down

Till his straining rump among the flowerbeds
Bends low, comes up twenty years away
Stooping in rhythm through potato drills
Where he was digging.

The coarse boot nestled on the lug, the shaft
Against the inside knee was levered firmly.
He rooted out tall tops, buried the bright edge deep
To scatter new potatoes that we picked
Loving their cool hardness in our hands.

By God, the old man could handle a spade,
Just like his old man.

My grandfather could cut more turf in a day
Than any other man on Toner's bog.
Once I carried him milk in a bottle
Corked sloppily with paper. He straightened up
To drink it, then fell to right away
Nicking and slicing neatly, heaving sods
Over his shoulder, digging down and down
For the good turf. Digging.

The cold smell of potato mold, the squelch and slap
Of soggy peat, the curt cuts of an edge
Through living roots awaken in my head.
But I've no spade to follow men like them.

Between my finger and my thumb
The squat pen rests.
I'll dig with it.

[Anonymous No.2798077]

>>2798057
You can still grow up in Irish culture, Italian culture, Indian culture, Carribean culture etc. while living in another country if you're family is made up of immigrants from that culture, and if even if you don't being a descendant still means something.

[Anonymous No.2798081]

>>2797959
I think Russian literature is one of the most unique and brilliant segments of world literature. Oh, and I'm American and I read in the original Russian.

What now?

[Anonymous No.2798082]

>>2798047
A true irishman hearing a yank say that he is irish or his mother/father's side was Irish is about as awe inspiring as saying that you have one head, a set of eyes and ears, and a nose on your face. The disapora happened and a large amount of Americans say they have irish ancestry and Identify with it... It is nothing to brag about. Go be a Plastic Paddy somewhere else! Now if you want to discuss Joyce,Wilde,Stoker, Swift, Shaw, Synge, etc. Go on right ahead.... This is /lit/ afterall

[Anonymous No.2798084]

>>2798013
His point about the poet being Irish still stands, though. Get over yourself.

[Anonymous No.2798088]

>>2798077

I was in school with a Romanian kid (first generation immigrant) from the age of 6 to the age of 17. I'd consider him more Irish than my cousin who was born and raised in Australia.

[Anonymous No.2798089]

>China has a literary history longer than any European country

According to China.

China sees stuff and says "oh yeah, we invent that. you can't prove us wrong, we write 4,000 years before you gwailo dogs discover caves and furs. We invent everything".

But when you investigate a wee bit further, they're lying bastards, just like everybody else.

"WE INVENT PASTA. IT JUST FLOUR AN WATER AN MAYBE A BIT OF EGG YOU FEEL RICH, BUT WE INVENT IT".

"GUNPOWDER, WE INVENT IT. NOW STOP SHOOTING US WITH IT PREASE - IT DESIGNED 4 FIREWORK."

"ANYTHING USEFU IN 21ST CENTURY? OH NO, YOU NEED GO ASK EUROPE FOR INVENTRION. BUT WE VERY FUCKING INVENTIVE MANY YEARS BEFORE YOUR SOCIETY BORN, OH YEA, ACCORDiNG TO US, ANYWAI".

Fucking chinks. Liars to a man.

[Anonymous No.2798092]

>>2798088

That said, we're supposed to be talking about books, so I really don't see any point in derailing this thread any longer. Have fun american guy.

[Anonymous No.2798099]

It all depends on the time period for me. Depending on the time, my answer would be Russia, Ireland, Great Britain, France, or possibly even the US.

[Standard Toaster !TOASTdnWDc No.2798107]

I say Russia by far.
I'd say Ireland, but really the only author from there that I really extremely enjoy is Joyce.
Maybe America. I can think of at least six authors that I really love right now.

[Anonymous No.2798120]

1. England
2. Italy
3. Russia
4. France
5. US.

Ireland? Joyce and... Beckett? Swift sort of... er... that's it. Oh I forgot Yeats but I don;t his work well.

[Anonymous No.2798124]

>>2798107

Bu-bu-but Beckett ... and Yeats ... and Wilde ... and Swift ... and Shaw ... and Heaney ... and Kavanagh ... and all those other awesome fellas ...

[Anonymous No.2798125]

>>2798099
good answer
>>2798107
what about Beckett?

[Anonymous No.2798128]

>>2798125
>>2798124
>>2798120
BECKETT?!
Bahahahah.

[Anonymous No.2798130]

England. Russia. France. Germany. Italy. Spain.

[Anonymous No.2798135]

>>2798128

>doesn't like the best playwright of the last hundred years

[Anonymous No.2798136]

Top 3 Are Easily:

America
Britain
Russia

[Anonymous No.2798138]

If we're going by literary influence per capita, Norway. Pic related.

Runner-up: Hamsun.

[Anonymous No.2798139]

How come none of you plebs mentioned Germany yet?

>Goethe
>Buchner
>Heine
>Hesse
>Novalis
>Rilke

And countless others.

[Anonymous No.2798143]

>>2798128

>>2798120 here. I agree, Beckett is rubbish, hence the "Beckett?"

Wilde is rubbish too.

Ireland, as a writing nation, are like Portugal's football team. One big noise, who is nonetheless a twat, a few half decent sorts and a load of jobbers.

[Standard Toaster !TOASTdnWDc No.2798145]

>>2798125
>>2798124
I've never read Beckett, so I can't say.
I didn't much care for Wilde, though.
But, even if I enjoy Beckett, that'd still only be two.

[Anonymous No.2798146]

>>2798128
what the fuck is wrong with Beckett? you best be trollin son

[Anonymous No.2798148]

Latveria because it's led by a genius

[Anonymous No.2798150]

>>2798139
It's odd, in the US education system (at least the schools that my friends and I have gone to), German authors are hardly read. The only one I read in high school was Kafka.
Care to share with us uneducated Americans some of the 'greatest hits' of German literature? You gave a list of authors; how about a list of novels/etc.?

[Anonymous No.2798156]

Slovetzia, hands down.

Middle Earth has some bitch arse writers as well, so they can be easily granted a second place.

[Anonymous No.2798157]

>>2798150
http://4chanlit.wikia.com/wiki/Recommended_Reading/Literature_by_origin#Germany

[Anonymous No.2798160]

>>2798143
I agree with you on Beckett, but not on Wilde. But Wilde is a bit of an acquired taste.
Beckett is just ludicrous, and not in an interesting way. A bit of a tryhard.

[Anonymous No.2798164]

>>2798157
Sweet, thanks!

[Anonymous No.2798165]

>>2798150
Kafka wrote in German but he was Czech. You need to read Goethe

[Anonymous No.2798171]

>>2798006

What do I think? I think that's a bogtrotter's poem about bogtrotting.

[Anonymous No.2798175]

>>2798139
Theau Von Harbou is't on that list!?!? Metropolis is a spectacular book and the movie is iconic. Fritz Lang and her were married and he made the movie. The book is complete the movie has never been released in complete format. The prose and metaphorical content is awesome too btw.

[Anonymous No.2798176]

i can't imagine a person with good taste disliking beckett

it's like trying to iamgine eating a toaster, there's just no way to envision it

[Anonymous No.2798177]

>>2798165
I refuse to read Goethe until I'm fluent in German.

[Anonymous No.2798199]

>>2798120
Italy above France

my sides

[Anonymous No.2798201]

>>2798107
>>2798107

>I say Russia by far.

>because I'm a tosser and I think it will impress people, especially girls.

pick both, cunt.

[Anonymous No.2798214]

>>2798150
Do read Georg Buchner´s play Danton´s Death, if nothing else. It´s written in a fresh and understandable language, and its themes are easily accessible even for the contemporary and more casual reader (as opposed to his other - great as they are - dramas).

Goethe´s Sorrows of Young Werther are good if you are comfortable with the romantic pathos.

Hesse´s Siddhartha is a fine read, and famous as well.

Ernst Junger´s Storm of Steel is a superb novel. Don´t be put off by the commies that like to associate him with Nazism.

As far as poetry is concerned, I adore Rilke´s Book of Hours and Novalis´ Hymns on the Night, but have no idea how they fare in translation.

[Anonymous No.2798218]

>>2798165
Kafka´s nationality, as well as almost everything else about him, is a highly confusing matter (don´t forget he was a jew and his family spoke yiddish). Most relevant for us is the fact that he wrote in German.

[Standard Toaster !TOASTdnWDc No.2798219]

>>2798201
>implying I talk to girls
>implying that even if I did talk to girls, it'd be about Russian literature
They'd think I was some fucking weirdo. If I wanted to impress the girls these days, I'd say that Perks of Being a Wallflower and the Hunger Games are my favorite books.

[Anonymous No.2798223]

>>2798006

This poem reminded me of Greenaway's A Zed and Two Naughts for some reason.

Germany's got Holderlin. Hyperion bitches!

[Anonymous No.2798224]

>>2798201
>tosser....cunt...
Please restructure your choice of words to reflect better on your vocabular and make you seem less uncouth.

[Anonymous No.2798232]

>>2798199

Of course.

Loads of greats. And Dante

>Dante

[Anonymous No.2798502]

I feel it needs to be mentioned, what is often ignored: Since the end of the 19th century, Ireland has had a population of less than 4 million. Please consider this next time you are comparing it in the areas of literature or sport to countries with more than 10 times its population. Out of every 3.something million Americans, Russians, or French, how many are world class writers, sportsmen, etc?

That said, pick ten people at random from anywhere in the world and you'll probably have 6 better politicians and bankers among them than our best.

[Anonymous No.2799531]

per capita: Iceland.

[Anonymous No.2799714]

>>2798120
>Ireland? Joyce and... Beckett? Swift sort of... er... that's it. Oh I forgot Yeats but I don;t his work well.
Wilde, O'Brian(O'Nolan), Stoker, Murdoch,

[Anonymous No.2799719]

Germany
Russia
Ireland

ukrainian-guy

[Anonymous No.2801906]

For all the people saying Ireland, can you list all the major works from Ireland for use on the recommendations wiki? We have the British & Irish lit chart, but I know it's leaving off a lot of important Irish lit.