Search:

Type: Posts; User: sixsmith; Keyword(s):

Page 1 of 20 1 2 3 4

Search: Search took 0.04 seconds.

  1. I disagree with your reading of Byron, Alex....

    I disagree with your reading of Byron, Alex. Indeed, it is, to my mind, the very lack of precision, the irreverence of tone, the frequent digressions, which render his work compelling, compelling in...
  2. Replies
    45
    Views
    11,611

    Well said.

    Well said.
  3. Replies
    45
    Views
    11,611

    1) Fair point. Anecdotal examples don't make for...

    1) Fair point. Anecdotal examples don't make for compelling evidence, though I suspect that his claim is attenuated by the fact that this site forbids political discussion and we must be pushing our...
  4. Replies
    45
    Views
    11,611

    I think you're simply begging the question here...

    I think you're simply begging the question here Drk. Indeed, the invocation of 'good taste' and 'moral sense', tout court, is exactly the kind of uncritical reaction to which stlukes is referring....
  5. Interesting point mortal. I think it was Leavis...

    Interesting point mortal. I think it was Leavis who remarked that Pope had a sureness and precision of tone that Byron conscpicously lacked, a distinction that is, as you point out, borne out in Don...
  6. Replies
    45
    Views
    11,611

    Time's Arrow - Martin Amis. The tale of a Nazi...

    Time's Arrow - Martin Amis. The tale of a Nazi doctor told in reverse chronology. Thus, corpses are given life, families are reunited, ghettos are dissolved etc. The closest thing to a comic...
  7. Thread: Patrick White

    by sixsmith
    Replies
    7
    Views
    2,481

    White must be one of the most under-read English...

    White must be one of the most under-read English language novelists. Indeed, despite considerable critical acclaim, he is largely out of print even in his native Australia. To be fair, he is not what...
  8. Replies
    7
    Views
    4,699

    JM Coetzee has published an essay on the topic of...

    JM Coetzee has published an essay on the topic of Kafka's translators in which he discusses the many problems that plague the Muirs' efforts. As Kiki points out, their renderings were considerably...
  9. Replies
    28
    Views
    6,964

    I surmise that the OP is asking about...

    I surmise that the OP is asking about living/recently deceased authors and that by 'most interesting', he or she means 'best'.

    Saul Bellow: Herzog
    Don DeLillo: White Noise
    Philip Roth:...
  10. Replies
    2
    Views
    1,179

    Thomas Bernhard

    I've recently read The Loser (Der Untergeher) and Correction (Korrektur). I won't wax lyrical about Bernhard's digressive, obdurate style, nor the exceedingly bleak (though possibly redemptive)...
  11. Replies
    153
    Views
    71,368

    I agree that that it's not simply a numbers game...

    I agree that that it's not simply a numbers game Dodo, but I think you're being a little dismissive of the Germans, and Goethe in particular. It's probably true that few authors can compete with...
  12. Replies
    79
    Views
    23,534

    Indeed. Hughes himself puts it in similar terms...

    Indeed. Hughes himself puts it in similar terms here:
    http://www.amien.org/forums/showthread.php?38-Art-amp-Money-by-Robert-Hughes

    And whatever one thinks of Hughes' criticism generally, we...
  13. Replies
    11
    Views
    2,124

    Given that the bolded are the third novels of the...

    Given that the bolded are the third novels of the respective authors, they don't exactly match the OP's criteria. However, given that said criteria is a tad arbitrary, I wholeheartedly endorse them...
  14. Replies
    8
    Views
    2,270

    Selected Poems 1908-1959 is a decent...

    Selected Poems 1908-1959 is a decent introduction, including poems from Personae through to the Cantos. I find Pound frequently compelling, though I think you have to be prepared to wade through a...
  15. Replies
    8
    Views
    2,548

    I'd second Larkin. His bleakest collection is...

    I'd second Larkin. His bleakest collection is probably High Windows.



    Friday Night at the Royal Station Hotel

    Light spreads darkly downwards from the high
    Clusters of lights over empty...
  16. Replies
    101
    Views
    26,044

    Mending Wall - Robert Frost In the Station of...

    Mending Wall - Robert Frost
    In the Station of the Metro - Ezra Pound
    The Love Song of Alfred J Prufrock - TS Eliot
    One Art - Elizabeth Bishop
    The Second Coming - WB Yeats
    Aubade - Philip...
  17. Replies
    101
    Views
    26,044

    I think it's a combination of factors, most of...

    I think it's a combination of factors, most of which have been articulated in this thread. An appreciation of poetry requires a basic knowledge of prosody, of poetic meter and form. Most high school...
  18. Replies
    20
    Views
    5,438

    I'm of the opinion that Dostoyevsky rarely gets...

    I'm of the opinion that Dostoyevsky rarely gets it right and that his characters tend to collapse into mere mouthpieces for his sandbox philosophy. The tendentious novel is, however, a tough ask, so...
  19. Replies
    0
    Views
    921

    Theodore Roethke

    I'm currently reading Roethke's Collected Poems and I find it hard to disagree with the assertion that Roethke, though undeniably talented, struggled to locate and sustain his own poetic voice. That...
  20. Replies
    27
    Views
    4,848

    http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/

    http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/postmodernism/
  21. Thread: Martin Amis

    by sixsmith
    Replies
    26
    Views
    4,827

    I tend to agree Mortal. I applaud Amis'...

    I tend to agree Mortal. I applaud Amis' opposition to the hackneyed, but his own prose, unfocused and awkward, has always struck me as inauthentic. Indeed, in prosecuting his 'war against cliche', he...
  22. Replies
    157
    Views
    28,791

    Mr Crouch is probably correct when he claims that...

    Mr Crouch is probably correct when he claims that the 'masses always preferred the loud and the obvious to the subtle and the intricate.' Today we have more masses, and, in part due to democratic...
  23. Replies
    186
    Views
    39,398

    "I am completely an elitist in the cultural but...

    "I am completely an elitist in the cultural but emphatically not the social sense. I prefer the good to the bad, the articulate to the mumbling, the aesthetically developed to the merely primitive,...
  24. Replies
    61
    Views
    11,007

    It is my opinion JBI and you are welcome to...

    It is my opinion JBI and you are welcome to assume that all my future posts pertaining to the merits or otherwise of novels and/or novelists contain my opinion.



    The process of speculating on...
  25. Replies
    61
    Views
    11,007

    Franzen is an author of considerable talent but...

    Franzen is an author of considerable talent but his need to wax sociological undermines the authenticity of his protagonists. I don't think that he can lay claim to having produced a great novel.

    ...
Results 1 to 25 of 500
Page 1 of 20 1 2 3 4