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/lit/ - Literature

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3317579 No.3317579 [Reply] [Original]

Let's talk about writing, /lit/, but on the small level this time. I want a discussion on what authors you think write the best sentences and are most skilled in their wordcraft.

I submit Thomas Payne and G.K. Chesterton as such individuals.

>third google image result for "Thomas Payne"

>> No.3317618

It's Paine

>> No.3317623

>>3317618

Well that would explain that then.

>> No.3317657

Proust. But I do love Chesterton, and wish that more of /lit/ had read his stuff.

>> No.3317653

Robert Frost.

There is no circumstance for which there does not exist a relevant and pithy Robert Frost poem.

>> No.3317663

Faulkner was greater than any of them.

Joyce, Woolf, Anderson, Melville, Shakespeare are all close seconds.

>> No.3317667

>>3317663

You are forgetting Fitzgerald.

>> No.3317685

>>3317667

Please. Decent, but he doesn't hold a candle to the rest of them.

>> No.3317694

>>3317685

I concur, Faulkner doesn't hold a candle to any of them.

>> No.3317696

>>3317694

Thanks for the laugh.

See me after class.

>> No.3317704

>>3317663
Typical modernism fan. Stubborn and elitist

>> No.3317705

>>3317696
Class is a social construct, faggot.

>> No.3317710

>>3317704

How is that evident in my post?

Am I supposed to point out the obvious by saying my opinions aren't universal truths?

>> No.3317711

People in this thread should be posting examples of amazing sentences/wordcraft.

>> No.3317714

>>3317705

Social constructs are a social construct, football head.

>> No.3317721

>>3317714
That social constructs are social constructs is a social construct, peon.

>> No.3317722

>>3317711
>THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER," and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.
>Whether the independence of the continent was declared too soon, or delayed too long, I will not now enter into as an argument; my own simple opinion is, that had it been eight months earlier, it would have been much better. We did not make a proper use of last winter, neither could we, while we were in a dependent state. However, the fault, if it were one, was all our own*; we have none to blame but ourselves. But no great deal is lost yet. All that Howe has been doing for this month past, is rather a ravage than a conquest, which the spirit of the Jerseys, a year ago, would have quickly repulsed, and which time and a little resolution will soon recover.

>> No.3317726

I think in terms of lyricism Fitzgerald definitely wins. But if you're talking about sentence manipulation and treating writing in more of a mathematical way then Pynchon, Faulkner, and Joyce are my personal favorites.

>> No.3317731

I'll probably get a lot of flack for this, but Dickens. Dem fucking words in David Copperfield man. It's like literary candy.

>> No.3317738

>>3317731
The best quote about Dickens I ever heard was that he never used a word where five would do.

>> No.3317742

>>3317738
It's definitely flowery and overwrought, but goddamn it, he could pick the correct five words.

>> No.3317778

>>3317742
You might like Chesterton, then. He is also Victorian and as such similarly wordy.
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/16769/16769-h/16769-h.htm#CHAPTER_IV_The_Ethics_of_Elfland

>> No.3317788

>>3317778
Thanks for the suggestion, man.

>> No.3317811

>>3317778

He's also largely the reason why anyone reads Dickens today, which is pretty cool.

>> No.3317825

Chesterton's the freaking best

>> No.3317864

>Chesterton fans popping up left and right
>soon to be just another face on the /lit/core circle-jerk

>> No.3317877
File: 32 KB, 400x611, tumblr_luvhzxSHyk1qd9a66o1_500[1].jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
3317877

>>3317864
I'm O.K. with this.

>> No.3317935

>>3317877
>implying you weren't ok with this

>> No.3318015

>>3317864
The Chest always struck me as an e/lit/ist.

>> No.3318145

>>3318015
Chesterton was way too sane and decent and good-natured to have posted on /lit/, man.

>> No.3318157

Chesterton is to DFW, as Ellis is to Wilde.

Discuss

>> No.3318165

>>3318157

Yeah, nah.

>> No.3318840

curious bump

isnt word craft synonymous with prose stylist?

>> No.3318867

Probably not enough people who are fluent in Swedish here to appreciate him, but Hjalmar Söderberg comes to mind. His novel Doktor Glas contains hands down the most beautiful Swedish I've ever read.

>> No.3318909

>>3318867

SPECIAL OLYMPICS

>> No.3318924

>>3318909
That actually made no goddamn sense. Congratulations.

>> No.3318927

>>3318924
They've translated something by Soderberg for special olympics apparently