The OLN Hall of Fame: INAGURAL BALLOT!

[Lord Macbeth]

Remember:

Each person may vote for up to 10.

75% or more is needed ot be inducted.

5% of the ballot or more is needed to stay on the ballot.

Below 5% and you're dropped for the next ballot.

Let the voting--and debating--begin for our INAGURAL CLASS! :D

[Patrick_Bateman]

1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
6. Ernest Hemingway
11. Leo Tolstoy
13. Fydor Dostoevsky
17. Anton Chekhov
38. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
44. Albert Camus
46. George Orwell

Shakespeare and Homer aren't as important to me as other luminaries but without those 2 in the inaugural induction ceremony this idea descends into farce.

[Lord Macbeth]

1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
6. Ernest Hemingway
11. Leo Tolstoy
13. Fydor Dostoevsky
17. Anton Chekhov
38. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
44. Albert Camus
46. George Orwell

Shakespeare and Homer aren't as important to me as other luminaries but without those 2 in the inaugural induction ceremony this idea descends into farce.

Vote on the poll, took a while to set it up with 50 names! ;)

[Patrick_Bateman]

1. William Shakespeare
2. Homer
3. Dante Alighieri
6. Ernest Hemingway
11. Leo Tolstoy
13. Fydor Dostoevsky
17. Anton Chekhov
38. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
44. Albert Camus
46. George Orwell

Shakespeare and Homer aren't as important to me as other luminaries but without those 2 in the inaugural induction ceremony this idea descends into farce.

Sorry I was in before the poll.

[Lord Macbeth]

My picks:

-Shakespeare
-Homer
-Dante
-T.S. Eliot
-George Bernard Shaw
-Mark Twain
-Friedrich Nietzsche (to try and save him from not getting at least 5% and getting knocked off)
-Edgar Allen Poe
-Sophocles
-Fydor Dostoyevsky

[Patrick_Bateman]

-Edgar Allen Poe

One of my nominees got a vote that wasn't my own :)

[Lord Macbeth]

Well, early on, Shakespeare, Homer, and Dante are the only ones who are still unanimous picks so far, 3-for-3...

As it probably should be...

[OrphanPip]

Meh I voted:

Shakespeare
Homer
Dante
Sophocles
Dickens
Montaigne
Goethe
Flaubert
Virgil
Cervantes

[Lord Macbeth]

Oh my!

Someone didn't vote for Shakespeare, for Dante, and for Homer!

The unanimous bid is off...WHO?! :p

In any case they're the only ones at this oh-so-early stage to be over the 75% mark...

Sophocles is close at around 71% (5 out of 7 votes)...

And after him Tolstoy and von Goethe are the next closest with around 57% 4 out of 7.)

[misterreplicant]

WHY isn't Alexandre Dumas on there?! lol

[Patrick_Bateman]

Looks like it's going to be a lonely hall for ol' Bill Shakespeare

[AlfredtheGreat]

Tolstoy - Anna Karenina and War & Peace, plus great short stories. Vote !

[The Rainmaker]

No Kafka? Such a shame.

[Lord Macbeth]

No Kafka? Such a shame.

The first of MANY elections...and I could only nominate 10, and I wanted to make sure Eliot and Shaw got nods...

I'll nominate him next time--unless I wake up tomorrow to find I've transformed into a monstrous bug. ;)


Looks like it's going to be a lonely hall for ol' Bill Shakespeare

Well, so far Will's 12/13 (where are you, Anti-Shakespeare-ite who didn't vote for the Bard?! LOL) and Homer and Dante have enough to clear...

But a lot of the others are slitting throats vote-wise, it looks like...Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy are splitting the Russian vote, Dickens and Twain are splitting novelist votes...

Still have a long way to go, though...

32 out of our 50 nominees have votes so far, good for 64% in just the first few hours...

So while a few names are clumping together a majority of the votes at the top, there are others getting some action.

[mona amon]

OK, what's the meaning of OLN? :confused5:

[Lord Macbeth]

OK, what's the meaning of OLN? :confused5:

Online
Literature
Network

The site's www-name is www.online-literature.com and the site The Literature Netowrk, which is Online...

Hence The Online Literature Network Hall of Fame. :)

Oh no, Homer and Dante are at 71%...

Someone vote for them so they can get back over 75%!

And WOW...

I feel sort of bad for Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky right now, an even 7-7 split between the two of them, adn thus only 50% each...

[mona amon]

Online
Literature
Network

D'oh! :D

[Syd A]

Would you please spell Poe's name correctly?!

[Lord Macbeth]

Would you please spell Poe's name correctly?!

Oh dear...I apologize, Ghost of Poe! (Come on, if ANYONE would have a ghost...)

Well, so far Shakespeare's the only one over 75%...

Dante and Homer are close...

Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy are still neck and neck--and thus are throttling each other over votes.

[sixsmith]

John Pynchon was always going to be up against it.

[Patrick_Bateman]

Pushkin, Shelley, Flaubert and Zola in danger of falling off the ballot

[Lord Macbeth]

Pushkin, Shelley, Flaubert and Zola in danger of falling off the ballot

Oh, the first three I'd like to see stay, the foruth...I actually am not familiar with.

Well, Billy Shakespeare's all by himself so far, but Homer just needs two more votes to make 75%, Dante needs three, and Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy need four or so, assuming that in those tow/three/four votes they get a vote each time.

Six days left, so plenty of time...

(And hopefully Pushkin doesn't fall off, I love Eugene Oenegin, Pushkin's poem and Tchaikovsky's true-to-the-material opera.)

Wow, a LOT of people aren't voting for Homer and Dante...

[Patrick_Bateman]

Wow, a LOT of people aren't voting for Homer and Dante...

I think the ballot is too large

It needs to be 25-30 names I reckon.

And some people are probably picking their favourite authors throughout rather than those who are undeniably deserving and a few of their own favourites.

[Alexander III]

I think the ballot is too large

It needs to be 25-30 names I reckon.

And some people are probably picking their favourite authors throughout rather than those who are undeniably deserving and a few of their own favourites.

I think the ballot size is fine, but yea I agree the problem is people have not read all the names on the list ( e.g Dante, Homer) so they just pick their favorites instead of the best.

[Whifflingpin]

"so they just pick their favorites instead of the best."
Surely that's the point, otherwise we might just as well post up Harold Bloom's list, or that of some other self-appointed arbiter of taste and quality.

[Lord Macbeth]

I think the ballot size is fine, but yea I agree the problem is people have not read all the names on the list ( e.g Dante, Homer) so they just pick their favorites instead of the best.

Yeah, it should be a mix, really, of choosing the best and choosing their favorites...I mean it's surely all taste, but really, Dante and Homer SHOULD have 75% with everyone allowed 10 votes, after all...

Well, it's a week-long thing, so maybe things will pick up for them during the week...

[Lord Macbeth]

Well, the good news is Dickens and the Russians have sort of taken off on a run and are moving up the chart with every vote, it seems...

The bad news is no one seems to want to give Homer and Dante the votes needed to push them over the hump and let them join Billy S...

What's not HOF-worthy about Dante and Homer, especially with 10 votes?

[Blasarius '33]

I'm new, so maybe there's a process I don't understand where other names get added later.
I guess what I'm saying is where's Faulkner?

[Lord Macbeth]

I'm new, so maybe there's a process I don't understand where other names get added later.
I guess what I'm saying is where's Faulkner?

Hey, welcome to the Forums!

We actually just started this whole Hall of Fame idea--hence this being the Inagural Ballot--and yeah, we took the first 50 nominees, and...huh, I guess Faulkner wasn't in there...

Oh well, don't worry, I'm SURE he'll be there next time (next time YOU can nominate him...and right now you can vote for up to 10 people on THIS ballot!)

[kelby_lake]

What I find strange is that there are the obvious choices and then some totally obscure or as the ballot would indicate, not as popular authors.

[Whifflingpin]

"What I find strange is that there are the obvious choices and then some totally obscure or as the ballot would indicate, not as popular authors"
I nominated some of the less obvious choices, partly because sticking to the obvious is boring, and partly because I'm in favour of biodiversity - maybe that's only one reason. But, why no votes for Defoe, the father of the English novel?
Why only 1 vote for Moliere, the most accessible of the great French dramatists?
Why only 1 for Gibbon, writer of the finest prose in English?
And surely the modern (or post-modern) Americans are more than a match for the old Russians.

[Patrick_Bateman]

"What I find strange is that there are the obvious choices and then some totally obscure or as the ballot would indicate, not as popular authors"
I nominated some of the less obvious choices, partly because sticking to the obvious is boring, and partly because I'm in favour of biodiversity - maybe that's only one reason. But, why no votes for Defoe, the father of the English novel?
Why only 1 vote for Moliere, the most accessible of the great French dramatists?
Why only 1 for Gibbon, writer of the finest prose in English?
And surely the modern (or post-modern) Americans are more than a match for the old Russians.

Can induct everyone in 1 go.
And why not enough votes for Homer? The grandfather of all Western Literature.

[kelby_lake]

I nominated some of the less obvious choices, partly because sticking to the obvious is boring..

But if it's the Hall of Fame, it makes sense to pick "the big names". Obviously you should pick ones that you think are worthy but surely the list should be representative of the general tastes here?

[Patrick_Bateman]

Hall of Fame suggests best of the best

You don't put U2 in the Rock N Roll HOF before The Beatles just because - for example - more people listen to and have a taste for U2.

You have 10 votes

you can spare at least 3 of those for the flawlessly deserving writers (Billy, Homer and Dante) Dosty should also be a first balloter but it is arguable to some degree.

[Whifflingpin]

"surely the list should be representative of the general tastes here?"
I guess that the successful candidates will represent the general taste and predominant cultural background of the people here.
However, the exercise is much more worth while if it encourages someone at least to question whether Borrow might be a better writer than Thoreau, or to wonder why Tournier might be worthy of acclaim.

[Blasarius '33]

Hall of Fame suggests best of the best

You don't put U2 in the Rock N Roll HOF before The Beatles just because - for example - more people listen to and have a taste for U2.

Yet Wilde, Wells, Twain, and Orwell are here and no Faulkner?
Ray Bradbury for Heaven's sake?

[Patrick_Bateman]

Yet Wilde, Wells, Twain, and Orwell are here and no Faulkner?
Ray Bradbury for Heaven's sake?

lol I nominated that cat.

There's only 50 spots on the ballot

I'm sure Faulkner will replace one of those who drop off the next ballot.

[Lord Macbeth]

Yeah, there ARE some great names not on this ballot, but again, plenty of names will be dropped after this one, leaving the spaces open...

I'm a bit torn on this, Shakespeare going in alone as the first inductee--unless Homer and/or the Russians can catch him, but they'll need to get a good deal more votes to break 75%--as on the one hand it IS Shakespeare, if anyone deserves to go in alone as THE inductee, the first one all alone, it's definitely him...

But on the other hand....come on, Homer and/or Dante should be keepin ghim company, even Babe Ruth went in with a few other titanic greats...