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Well, maybe you have the pronunciation wrong. I pronounced his name Sarter for a while before my philosophy teacher corrected me and said that the correct pronunciation is Sart, which is much easier to say.Quote:
Originally Posted by sammyuk
I'm still getting used to calling Camus Caemoo rather than Caemus.
It's more like Sar-tre pronounced very quickly together, but Sart is a close approximation for English speakers because they usually stumble over the two rolled Rs.Quote:
Originally Posted by Desolation
A name I've heard pronounced innumerable different ways is Nietzsche, I'm still not entirely sure of the proper pronunciation.
Edit: I made a little 30 second recording of the pronunciation of Sartre and Camus in my embarrassingly nasal voice:
http://www.zshare.net/download/716575822b61d6c3/
you can also hear my bird singing in the background haha :p
I'm going to pretend that the Lewis on the list is Sinclair and not C.S.
Sinclair Lewis is one of the top 10 American authors of all time
Why is Joyce so low?
Same with the top 100 books list, there is no way in hell that Ulysses is number 42.
I'm glad Murakami got on :)
i'm so happy to see Murakami on the list. though i also want to see Confucius there, he's real great too.
Actually such lists are made under some criterion which may vary from organization to organization. Therefore, people, sometimes, don't agree with such ranking. To me the list is nice giving every writer his or her right place.
Minor cardiac event seeing Shaekspeare at #2. But, this explains. Steinbeck at #5, and Chaucer at #90 or so. This is a joke, right?
The list isn't exactly the same as my personal list would be, four authors are off by one place, two by two places and one even by four places! Why, I ask you, is that author off by four places? This list is absurd, ridiculous and a joke! What kind of illiterate idiot would make such a list?!
some of it is opinion, but some ratings are factually accurate. Rating Shakespeare #1 by any standard of rational judgment, and, ommitting second rate literary pretenders such as Steinbeck off of a list of top #100 books where inclusion of such jeopardizes credibility of the entire list. If you see such a list and Steinbeck at #5, what are you to make of the list, and who it was that voted on it?
I already I'm going to get some pissed of American Lit major come after me for this, but does Steinbeck really deserve to be 5th on this list?
Just my opinion.
Does anyone like Louisa may Alcott?
Motherof8
Interesting that almost none of the most popular contemporary writers are on this list, except for Murakami.
In my view Joyce doesnt deserve to be so high.
But i am very biased, because i had only (tried to) read Ulysses, which after some chapters becomes utterly unreadable in my view :)
Nee - ts (like in beats) - she (like in Sherlock), stress on the neeQuote:
Originally Posted by OrphanPip
Newbie Here.
Has anyone seen the episode of Two and a Half Men where Allen has a freak attack in the bookstore over his lack of reading of the classics...............well, I feel very much the same just now after having read the list.
Good Lord where will I find the time to whittle that list down ? And how on earth did I get to this age and not have checked off more of those names?
What a wonderful group of people I have found.
I cannot believe Nietzsche is so far below in the list. His prose is remarkable, explosive, and it glimmers with insights into the human condition. Dickens may very well be an excellent story-teller, but I would reconsider in placing him in the top 10 authors of all time. What has his contribution been to society? A portrayal of the sordidness of industrial London?
I agree, Murakami is an innovative writer. Kafka on the Shore is one of my favorite novels even though the story is tedious in certain parts.Quote:
Originally Posted by jet.thursday
Furthermore, any list of literary authors sans Gabriel Garcia Marquez must have serious flaws. I suppose this list indicates the culture and exposure of its audience.
It is interesting that the vast majority of the writers in this list are either European or American. Coetzee is also deserving.
****in' Dickens
You underestimate Dickens. It was because he pointed up the sordidness of industrial life, that reforms were eventually enacted to alleviate the problem.Quote:
Originally Posted by .Kafka
I'm happy Steinbeck made it so high :)
I don't understand this obsession with lists and ratings. Is there really any point in comparing Dickens and Joyce and ranking them in relative terms? What a bizarre notion!
I agree, there's really no point in it. But, hey, it can be fun. :party:Quote:
Originally Posted by WyattGwyon
Co-sign, a lot of those writers were unique in their own way...Different styles suitable to a variety of genres.Quote:
Originally Posted by WyattGwyon
i may have missed his name but no Kerouac?
Hate to dump on the list like so many others have, but come on! No Cervantes? I checked three times, I must be blind. Someone tell me I missed it, please. I'm just going to pretend that I did.
You could hardly believe, but outside of USA American writers are not very high rated.
I'd believe that...though I think Twain, Poe, Hemmingway, and maybe Dickenson and Tennessee Williams hold some clout overseas, Twain honored overseas, ditto Hemmingway, Poe and Dickenson have more European styles, and Williams is a playwright and those tend to do better across the Podn, I think than HERE (sadly.)Quote:
Originally Posted by bazarov
And as much as I respect Dostoyevsky...Shakespeare should be #1, I'm sorry...
Simply put, quantitative measures of qualitative expereinces are never going to hit the mark completly. As for people getting upset about authors being a place or two off where they think they should be, that's just being silly. I love that this disscussion exists. As someone who is just getting back into reading after years of being rather crule to my brain I must say I found the list a vluable resource. So from a new member to this forum, thankyou very much.
Hooray Steinbeck! :D
But not as fun as it would be to see these authors face off in a "Celebrity Deathmatch" haha!Quote:
Originally Posted by Aragorn Elessar
Happy to see Dostoevsky on top, though i do think Nietzsche deserves more than 1 vote.
Yea for Thomas Hardy!
Dostoevsky no. 1? Let me sneer snidely
Hooray for Dostoevsky! He caused me so much pain when I was a uni student - the sort of pain one remembers fondly in the years to follow ... Sadly, I see some of these authors as 'bucket list entries' - people whose books I should read, but don't really enjoy. Finishing Heart of Darkness, for example, gave me a sense of achievement but very little satisfaction. I knew that I had read something important and very worthy, but didn't feel any richer for the experience.
I didn't notice. Was Joseph Conrad even on the list? He usually shows up on these sorts of things.
That is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. I'm from Sweden and here we appreciate Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck, Emily Dickinson, Whitman, Melville just as highly as Dostoevsky or anybody else (or higher as in my case). American literature is extremely diverse and has some of the finest and some of the worst writers ever.Quote:
Originally Posted by bazarov
quite a comprehensive list. would help me in picking books
I disagree with the list immensely, then again I don't take these things seriously.
Krleža? I would rather put Danilo Kiš.
:)
That is an impressive list, the only problem is I don't think anyone should be put over Shakespeare, I do enjoy Fyodor though. It is sad to see the amount of people commenting who are exemplifying a remonstrance against Virginia Woolf, it makes me doubt if these people really know anything about good Literature.
Why do you close the vote ?