I was wondering if we could apply this process to older fiction, Great Literature that is historically praised, and excellent by its own time’s standards, but which, if published by a modern author, would seem substandard or inappropriate in one way or another.
Historic Great Literature. You mean Lord of the Rings, right? Surely you don’t expect us to read things from before that?
What, and miss out on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and The Caves of Steel and I, Robot and...?
Pardon me, I of course meant to start the date from ‘The Hobbit’. Lax of me. Foundation was great, particularly the first time I read it a couple of decades ago.
I’ve read things from before then, but largely under coercion. I’m utterly unimpressed by Shakespere and want those years of my life back.
Have you read Borges? I would be very surprised if someone attracted to the LW memeset didn’t enjoy him. Nabokov is another good bet, I think.
Never heard of them. Thankyou for the recommendation. Since I near constantly have audiobooks running at high speed in my earphones as background noise I find myself hard pressed to find enough non-trashy content to catch my attention.
Nabokov put out most of his famous work after WWII (and thus The Hobbit); Lolita was published in 1955, Pale Fire in 1962. With LW as an audience I think I’d recommend the latter over the former, although they’re both quite good. Borges was also most prolific postwar, although there isn’t a sharp division with him like there is with Nabokov.
While we’re recommending authors, I might as well give a nod to Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita; Heart of a Dog). Though he’s one that’s hard to put an era to; he died in 1940, but The Master and Margarita was published in 1968. Translations into English came even later.
Nabokov put out most of his famous work after WWII (and thus The Hobbit); Lolita was published in 1955, Pale Fire in 1962. With LW as an audience I think I’d recommend the latter over the former, although they’re both quite good.
Actually, the Nabokov novels I prefer are generally the ones he originally wrote in Russian, pre-war. My favorite is probably The Eye.
As a fan of Shakespeare, can I ask which ones you read? Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays, and their quality varies considerably. There are a number of his plays that I actively dislike, and an even larger number that I am indifferent towards, but the ones I like, I like enough that I understand why people consider him to be so great.
If it isn’t to much trouble, can I also ask how you were exposed to them? My understanding is that most people’s first (and often only) exposure to Shakespeare’s plays is through reading their scripts in high school English classes over the course of several weeks; this is unequivicably the wrong way to experience them—the plays are, first and foremost, plays; that is to say, things to be performed.
As a fan of Shakespeare, can I ask which ones you read?
Romeo and Juliet was the one I was forced to study the most. I wasn’t impressed. I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the theatre and it wasn’t nearly as tiresome.
If it isn’t to much trouble, can I also ask how you were exposed to them?
Excessively. Reading scripts, watching movies, watching plays, writing essays, memorizing passwords, pretending things are Deep and Insightful. Unfortunately ‘English’ was the one subject that wasn’t an elective.
My favorite part is Friar Lawrence’s epic chewing out of Romeo for trying to kill himself. (It’s the single longest speech in the play.)
Hold thy desperate hand! Art thou a man? Thy form cries out thou art. Thy tears are womanish; thy wild acts denote The unreasonable fury of a beast. Unseemly woman in a seeming man, And ill-beseeming beast in seeming both! Thou hast amazed me. By my holy order, I thought thy disposition better tempered. Hast thou slain Tybalt? Wilt thou slay thyself?— And slay thy lady that in thy life lives, By doing damnèd hate upon thyself? Why railest thou on thy birth, the Heaven, and Earth, Since birth and Heaven and Earth all three do meet In thee at once, which thou at once wouldst lose? Fie, fie, thou shamest thy shape, thy love, thy wit, Which, like a usurer, aboundest in all And usest none in that true use indeed Which should bedeck thy shape, thy love, thy wit. Thy noble shape is but a form in wax, Digressing from the valor of a man; Thy dear love sworn but hollow perjury, Killing that love which thou hast vowed to cherish; Thy wit—that ornament to shape and love— Misshapen in the conduct of them both, Like powder in a skilless soldier’s flask Is set afire by thine own ignorance, And thou dismembered with thine own defense. What—rouse thee, man! Thy Juliet is alive For whose dear sake thou wast but lately dead— There art thou happy. Tybalt would kill thee, But thou slewest Tybalt—there art thou happy. The law that threatened death becomes thy friend And turns it to exile—there art thou happy. A pack of blessings light upon thy back; Happiness courts thee in her best array; But like a misbehaved and sullen wench Thou pouts upon thy fortune and thy love. Take heed, take heed, for such die miserable. Go, get thee to thy love as was decreed, Ascend her chamber—hence and comfort her. But look thou stay not till the watch be set, For then thou canst not pass to Mantua, Where thou shalt live till we can find a time To blaze your marriage, reconcile your friends, Beg pardon of the Prince, and call thee back With twenty hundred thousand times more joy Than thou wentst forth in lamentation. Go before, Nurse. Commend me to thy lady, And bid her hasten all the house to bed, Which heavy sorrow makes them apt unto.— Romeo is coming.
I also liked Hamlet. Julius Caesar was boring, though.
Historic Great Literature. You mean Lord of the Rings, right? Surely you don’t expect us to read things from before that?
What, and miss out on Isaac Asimov’s Foundation series and The Caves of Steel and I, Robot and...?
Pardon me, I of course meant to start the date from ‘The Hobbit’. Lax of me. Foundation was great, particularly the first time I read it a couple of decades ago.
I’ve read things from before then, but largely under coercion. I’m utterly unimpressed by Shakespere and want those years of my life back.
Have you read Borges? I would be very surprised if someone attracted to the LW memeset didn’t enjoy him. Nabokov is another good bet, I think.
Never heard of them. Thankyou for the recommendation. Since I near constantly have audiobooks running at high speed in my earphones as background noise I find myself hard pressed to find enough non-trashy content to catch my attention.
Nabokov put out most of his famous work after WWII (and thus The Hobbit); Lolita was published in 1955, Pale Fire in 1962. With LW as an audience I think I’d recommend the latter over the former, although they’re both quite good. Borges was also most prolific postwar, although there isn’t a sharp division with him like there is with Nabokov.
While we’re recommending authors, I might as well give a nod to Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita; Heart of a Dog). Though he’s one that’s hard to put an era to; he died in 1940, but The Master and Margarita was published in 1968. Translations into English came even later.
Actually, the Nabokov novels I prefer are generally the ones he originally wrote in Russian, pre-war. My favorite is probably The Eye.
As a fan of Shakespeare, can I ask which ones you read? Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays, and their quality varies considerably. There are a number of his plays that I actively dislike, and an even larger number that I am indifferent towards, but the ones I like, I like enough that I understand why people consider him to be so great.
If it isn’t to much trouble, can I also ask how you were exposed to them? My understanding is that most people’s first (and often only) exposure to Shakespeare’s plays is through reading their scripts in high school English classes over the course of several weeks; this is unequivicably the wrong way to experience them—the plays are, first and foremost, plays; that is to say, things to be performed.
Romeo and Juliet was the one I was forced to study the most. I wasn’t impressed. I saw A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the theatre and it wasn’t nearly as tiresome.
Excessively. Reading scripts, watching movies, watching plays, writing essays, memorizing passwords, pretending things are Deep and Insightful. Unfortunately ‘English’ was the one subject that wasn’t an elective.
Personally, I liked Romeo and Juilet.
My favorite part is Friar Lawrence’s epic chewing out of Romeo for trying to kill himself. (It’s the single longest speech in the play.)
I also liked Hamlet. Julius Caesar was boring, though.