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Blind Sally posted:I know, right? Why not just make more non-genre literature threads and not talk about genre books in them? There's a Whitman thread now. Sounds like we need a Shakespeare thread. I did but no one cares mate
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Jul 15, 2014 05:26
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dogcrash truther posted:Your not being trendy, because there's pretty much no other choice. It's like saying, "Boy, you know what, in my opinion, Shakespeare was an influential writer. Definitely one if the greats of not THE greatest English playwright of the last 500 years." I don't know about there being no other choice, in the 19th century Whitman was not universally well received after all. For modern audiences Emerson, Emily Dickinson, Herman Melville and Stephen Crane are all still extremely readable and I could see someone preferring them. Whitman is a giant, but it would be a shame to think he was the only poet worth reading that 100 years of American literature produced. Likewise, I've heard people make a pretty compelling case for Christopher Marlowe or Oscar Wilde as the greatest English playwright. Judging among talented artists after a certain point is really not possible. Personally, I've always found the relative greatness of literary figures to depends a lot on what kind of mood I'm in during a particular moment. I understand the use of having a canon of "great authors," but certainly we shouldn't make it too narrow.
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Jul 15, 2014 06:17
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dogcrash truther posted:Your not being trendy, because there's pretty much no other choice. It's like saying, "Boy, you know what, in my opinion, Shakespeare was an influential writer. Definitely one if the greats of not THE greatest English playwright of the last 500 years." Shakespeare was common trash and the only reason he's remembered now is that the common people actually liked his plays.
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Jul 15, 2014 07:51
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At least 19th Century poets tried, modern poets are basically just trolls who wanted to be writers but failed, so they decided to start writing random poo poo.
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Jul 15, 2014 08:38
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computer parts posted:Shakespeare was common trash and the only reason he's remembered now is that the common people actually liked his plays. Actually shakespeare is remembered on account of him being one of the greatest writers ever, IMHO.
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Jul 15, 2014 11:34
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mallamp posted:At least 19th Century poets tried, modern poets are basically just trolls who wanted to be writers but failed, so they decided to start writing random poo poo. Actually a lot of modern poetry is exceedingly beautiful and conveys things that would not be suited to prosaical form, IMHO.
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Jul 15, 2014 11:35
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CestMoi posted:Actually shakespeare is remembered on account of him being one of the greatest writers ever, IMHO. And also due to David Garrick.
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Jul 15, 2014 11:41
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CestMoi posted:Actually a lot of modern poetry is exceedingly beautiful and conveys things that would not be suited to prosaical form, IMHO. How modern are we talking? If there are any living poets who are actually good I haven't encountered them yet, so recommendations would be great.
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Jul 15, 2014 14:03
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CestMoi posted:Actually a lot of modern poetry is exceedingly beautiful and conveys things that would not be suited to prosaical form, IMHO. Pretty sure he's trolling.
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Jul 15, 2014 14:49
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The problem with creating a thread for each and every great writer of literary significance is that there are just so many of them. Are we going to have a Burroughs thread? A Kafka thread? A Milton thread? A Dickens thread? An Austen thread? I could go on and on and on. Relative to that, there are a smattering of modern authors of varying quality who have audiences wide enough to support active debate and participation on a forum like this. In light of this, one big "literature" megathread makes a certain amount of sense.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:02
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All Nines posted:How modern are we talking? If there are any living poets who are actually good I haven't encountered them yet, so recommendations would be great. Maybe he means Modern with a capital M. Turn of the century types, Ezra Pound, T. S. Eliot, all those guys.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:17
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CountFosco posted:The problem with creating a thread for each and every great writer of literary significance is that there are just so many of them. Are we going to have a Burroughs thread? A Kafka thread? A Milton thread? A Dickens thread? An Austen thread? I could go on and on and on. Why not?!
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Jul 15, 2014 15:37
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CountFosco posted:The problem with creating a thread for each and every great writer of literary significance is that there are just so many of them. Are we going to have a Burroughs thread? A Kafka thread? A Milton thread? A Dickens thread? An Austen thread? I could go on and on and on. We've had at least one of those threads and it sank without trace.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:39
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Nobody in the Kafka thread would have any faith in its value. It'd be full of half-finished posts and when it ran its course they'd probably be so embarassed by it all they'd ask for it to be sent to the gas chamber.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:42
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The Kafka thread is dead.
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Jul 15, 2014 15:43
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If Patrick Rothfuss gets his own thread, surely writers better than he deserve their own thread.
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Jul 15, 2014 16:01
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Definitely. But it seems like there aren't actually enough people here who read those good authors to keep a whole thread going. The only literary author whose thread has been posted in in the last month is McCarthy (and he isn't even that good). Didn't the Salinger thread get drowned in Stone Cold Steve Austin gifs (not that there aren't authors who are still more deserving of threads)?
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Jul 15, 2014 16:12
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Threads about older authors are welcome but they have a few problems. The first is that this is a low traffic forum to begin with. The second is that SA as a whole isn't exactly the Algonquin round table. The third is that a lot of what drives the big threads is speculation about upcoming books. If Dickens were publishing a serial right now a thread on it would probably be a lot more popular. I'd suggest doing any older classic author threads as "let's read" type things.
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Jul 15, 2014 20:33
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Individul author threads wouldn't work because since I posted it in February or something the not genre fic thread has got 6 pages and in that time the old dresden files thread has been closed and a new one has been opened and it has 30 pages of posts.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:21
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All Nines posted:How modern are we talking? If there are any living poets who are actually good I haven't encountered them yet, so recommendations would be great. Seamus Heaney is quite good and so are others.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:22
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Holy moly I just found out Seamus Heaney died last year
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Jul 15, 2014 22:23
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Now that newspapers are axing their literary contingent, what's a good place online that serves the same purpose? I'm mostly limited to reading 1 star reviews of JR on goodreads.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:50
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Mr. Squishy posted:Now that newspapers are axing their literary contingent, what's a good place online that serves the same purpose? I'm mostly limited to reading 1 star reviews of JR on goodreads. If you can afford to buy newspapers, you can afford to subscribe to LRB and NYRB or whatever.
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Jul 15, 2014 22:52
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Who buys newspapers they put all their poo poo online.
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Jul 15, 2014 23:01
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Mr. Squishy posted:Who buys newspapers they put all their poo poo online. I can see why they're axing the lit pages.
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Jul 15, 2014 23:06
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All Nines posted:How modern are we talking? If there are any living poets who are actually good I haven't encountered them yet, so recommendations would be great. Derek Walcott is still kicking and he won a nobel prize. Plus, postmodern epic poem. Also extremely old but somehow still kicking is Yves Bonnefoy. I like Yiannis Ritsos a lot but he died in 1990. Alden Nowlan, also good, completely different from most people's expectations of modern poetry (T.S. Eliot and the PoMos I think is what most people rebel against) - very simple, but very lovely. He died 1983, unfortunately.
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Jul 15, 2014 23:33
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CestMoi posted:Holy moly I just found out Seamus Heaney died last year That sucks, I'm sorry to hear it
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Jul 16, 2014 01:48
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I just finished The Plot Against America by Phil Roth and it was great, thanks to whoever it was that was talking about it itt.
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Jul 16, 2014 01:53
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Smoking Crow posted:I'm happy you disagree with something i posted a month ago im glad you've completely changed your opinion since then, dont worry we all make mistakes when were younger
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Jul 16, 2014 03:34
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Hieronymous Alloy posted:I'd suggest doing any older classic author threads as "let's read" type things. When was the last time an Awful Book of the Month thread got to two pages, though? I guess it just aint gonna work.
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Jul 16, 2014 04:13
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Farecoal posted:im glad you've completely changed your opinion since then, dont worry we all make mistakes when were younger I believe in the post, but at this point, we're all past it, m8
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Jul 16, 2014 04:21
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pixelbaron posted:When was the last time an Awful Book of the Month thread got to two pages, though? I'm gonna give it a shot with a Shakespeare thread. We'll see how it goes.
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Jul 16, 2014 04:27
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I could throw up a Dickens thread soon. Or maybe a 19th century novel thread, which might get more traffic...
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Jul 16, 2014 04:40
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Please start up a Shakespeare thread, it's so perfect for a lets read. Each play is a short read, so people won't be put off by a long hard slog, and we can swap things up by reading a comedy, then a tragedy, then a tragi-comedy etc etc so it doesn't get samey. And if after a few plays interest wanes then at least we're not left in the middle of things, unfinished. When I was at uni we were assigned a play a week but most people read them in a day or two, and there is so much to talk about it's pretty much inexhaustible, not to mention the literary criticism for Shakespeare ranges from genuinely fascinating and credible to bat poo poo crazy. Anyway, I personally would be interested because I've not read all his plays, and the ones I have read I only covered briefly so I feel I've missed a lot. That and I want to get into brawling grudge matches with people who don't like Titus Andronicus 
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Jul 16, 2014 07:24
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Dr Scoofles posted:Please start up a Shakespeare thread, it's so perfect for a lets read. Each play is a short read, so people won't be put off by a long hard slog, and we can swap things up by reading a comedy, then a tragedy, then a tragi-comedy etc etc so it doesn't get samey. And if after a few plays interest wanes then at least we're not left in the middle of things, unfinished. When I was at uni we were assigned a play a week but most people read them in a day or two, and there is so much to talk about it's pretty much inexhaustible, not to mention the literary criticism for Shakespeare ranges from genuinely fascinating and credible to bat poo poo crazy. Look for the Bill Shaxberd Club.
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Jul 16, 2014 14:15
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Chamberk posted:I could throw up a Dickens thread soon. Or maybe a 19th century novel thread, which might get more traffic... Not every thread has to be some sprawling 50 page monster. Small threads are cool as well.
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Jul 16, 2014 18:25
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Stravinsky posted:Not every thread has to be some sprawling 50 page monster. Small threads are cool as well. Yeah I've been convinced to read a few things that had threads that were one, two pages at most. Don't have to have a ton of posts to get some good discussion going!
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Jul 16, 2014 21:03
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Also cool if/when you make a good thread about capital L literature, post a link in here! (aka Shakespeare thread) One of my current favorite living poets is Michael Ondaatje (he also wrote The English Patient). His verse is so rich with imagery and longing and sweetness. "Sweet Like a Crow" is my personal favorite and "The Cinnamon Peeler" is his most famous. (Link is to a beautiful reading by Tom O'Bedlam. Bonus Roger Ebert article tangentially about that video and a link to Ondaatje reading it himself) And why not also ex poet laureate Billy Collins? His readings are actually incredibly funny, and his poetry is smart and modern. Walking Across the Atlantic by Billy Collins posted:I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach
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Jul 17, 2014 03:18
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OP, why are you such a hipster that you believe some "literature" has more merit than others just by virtue of being a couple hundred years old?
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Jul 17, 2014 05:18
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Rime posted:OP, why are you such a hipster that you believe some "literature" has more merit than others just by virtue of being a couple hundred years old? If I had to compare top grossing novels written today with popular novels written a couple hundred years ago I'm pretty sure I'd get less brain damage reading the classics. Did you really just call OP a hipster? Do you also use  ?
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Jul 17, 2014 05:22
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