2007 Authors Poll

[Scheherazade]

What if there's a tie? For example, right now Rushdie, Grass, Eugenides, Vonnegut, and Bulgakov are all tied for 12th place.

If there is a tie, we flip a coin or have a draw...

However, since it is very early days yet, it is unlikely that we will end up having a tie (the poll does not close till November 30th).

[Scheherazade]

The results as they stand at the moment:

Oscar Wilde* 9

Milan Kundera 9

John Updike 7

D.H. Lawrence* 7

John Irving 7

Truman Capote 6

Jeffrey Eugenides 6

Kurt Vonnegut 6

Edith Wharton* 6

Henry James* 6

Ian McEwan 6

George Bernard Shaw* 6
----------------------------------------------------------------
Salman Rushdie 5

Gunter Grass 5

Mihail Bulgakov 5

Ovid 5

David Lodge 4

Angela Carter 4

H.P Lovecraft 4

Arkadi and Boriss Strugatski 3

Viktor Pelevin 3

Cormac McCarthy 3

Joseph Heller 3

Philip Roth 3

Terry Pratchett 3

Henry Rider Haggard* 2

Stella Gibbons 2



Anyone who wants to vote for Philip Roth and Angela Carter???

[superunknown]

Come on, one (maybe two?) more for Bulgakov.

[bazarov]

Come on, one (maybe two?) more for Bulgakov.

Go Bulgakov!

[papayahed]

ok, so here's my problem: So far it seems like it would be interesting to read each author I've looked up, at this rate I'll be voting for all of them!!

[Scheherazade]

ok, so here's my problem: So far it seems like it would be interesting to read each author I've looked up, at this rate I'll be voting for all of them!!

How about voting for the 12 authors you would like to read most!

[Scheherazade]

Oscar Wilde* 11

D.H. Lawrence* 9

Milan Kundera 9

George Bernard Shaw* 9

John Updike 8

Edith Wharton* 8

John Irving 8

Henry James* 8

Salman Rushdie 7

Truman Capote 7

Kurt Vonnegut 7

Ian McEwan 7

__________________________________________________ _______________

Gunter Grass 6

Jeffrey Eugenides 6

Mihail Bulgakov 6

David Lodge 5

Ovid 5

H.P Lovecraft 5

Arkadi and Boriss Strugatski 4

Joseph Heller 4

Angela Carter 4

Terry Pratchett 4

Viktor Pelevin 3

Cormac McCarthy 3

Henry Rider Haggard* 3

Philip Roth 3

Stella Gibbons 3

[Virgil]

Scher, what does the * next to some of the names mean?

[grace86]

Virgil - it means that the text is available here on litnet.

[Virgil]

Oh, Thank you Grace.

[Jay]

Oh come on people, no one else up for Angela Carter?

[Nossa]

Oscar Wilde all the way...lol

[papayahed]

How about voting for the 12 authors you would like to read most!

hmmmmm... That may just be crazy enough to work!!

[cuppajoe_9]

I'm particularly interested in reading one of Wilde's plays that I believe is called Vera, or The Nihilists. There was an excerpt from it on my English final exam, and it was amazing. LitNet doesn't seem to have it, unfortunately.

[Taliesin]

Viktor Pelevin.
What can we say about his novels?
We have heard the following adjectives being used about them: postmodern, postsoviet, zen-buddhist, emptiness, ironic, humorous and worried. Worried about what is happening to Russia today. But on the same time, they are really good to read.
We once spoke about his "Buddha's little finger" (aka "Tšapajev and Pustota" aka "The Clay Machine-Gun") in the Review a Book topic.

http://www.online-literature.com/for...&postcount=164


We will quote the parts that we put in there in this topic too.

So we'll do a not-very-accurate-and-translated-besides quote from discussion of two stoned drug-addicts (we are not doing drug-propaganda, and neither is Pelevin, but it is just an example), starting with the problem where the kef comes from(did a dictionary search in english, and it was the only word that came up, means the pleasure coming from drugs, We think):

-Inside us is the kef of the whole world. When you eat something or consume something, then you release a part of it. There is no kef in drugs, it is just powder or mushrooms. It is like the key to a safe. Understand?
-a small pause
-"listen", started Shurik now, but is there a lot of kef in there
-"infinitely much", said Volodin authoritatively, "Infinetely and unimagenably much, and there is that kind that you couldn't taste in your life"
-"Oh... so you have a safe inside and in that safe there is kef?"
-"Basically yes"
-"But if i could get that safe and open it?"
-"Why not?"
-"But how?"
-"You need to dedicate your whole life to it. Why do you think people go to monastery and live all their life there? Think that they just beat their heads against the floor? They really get some awesome kef there and like that, like what you cannot get in a thousand pounds. And always, do you understand? Morning, noon, evening. Some even in sleep"
-But from what do they get that kef? How is it called?
-In many ways. Basically, you could call it compassion. Or love.
-"Whose love?"
-"Just love. When you feel it, then you won't think of where it comes from or why. You won't think at all.

/We are cutting some text out of here, because we don't want to type that much/


"Listen, Volodin, are you speaking seriously about it?"
"About what?"
"Well, about that that you can have kef for your whole life. So that you would always be stoned?
"I didn't say that for life. There are other terms"
"You yourself said that there is kef all the time.
"I haven't said that neither"
"What did you say then"
"I didn't say "all the time", said Volodin " I said, "forever". Keep your ears open."
"But what is the difference?"
"The difference is that, that where the kef begins, there is no time."
"What is there, then?"
"Compassion"
"And what else"
"Nothing"
"I don't get it," said Shurik, "Does it, like, hang in emptyness, that compassion?"
"There is no emptyness either"
"What is there, then?"
"I said it before, compassion."
"Again i don't get it"
"Don't worry," said Volodin, "When you could understand that so easily, half the Moscow would kef for free"

On the same subject again:

"You need to understand the main thing," said Volodin "And i don't know how to explain... Do you remember, we spoke about the inner prosecutor?"
"I remember. He's the guy who stops you when you go too far. Like Raskolnikov, who killed the old lady. The guy thought that his inner lawyer will talk him out of it but it went the other way.
"Exactly. But who do you think the inner prosecutor is?"
Shurik started thinking
"Don't know.. Well, it is me. A part if me. Who else?"
"But the inner lawyer who will talk you out of it?"
"Again me, i guess. Though it seems quite strange - that i will open a case for myself and talk myself out of it"
"There is nothing strange about it. That's how it always is. Now imagine that your inner prosecutor has confined you, all your inner lawyers have failed and you are sitting in your own inner prison. Now imagine that there is someone fourth, who won't confine anyone, who cannot be called neither prosecutor, lawyer, nor for the guy for whom the lawyer works for. Who had never ever any case on him - i mean he is not a criminal nor an ordinary guy nor copper."
"OK. I imagined."
"Well, the fourth person is the one, for whom is the forever kef. And he needs nothing to be explained to him about it, do you understand?"
"And who is the fourth?"
"Noone"
"Can one see him anyhow?"
"No"
"Well, perhaps he can't be seen, but can he be felt?"
"No"
"Well, then he doesn't exist at all"
"Actually, if you want to know," said Volodin, "those prosecutors and lawyers do not exist. And even you don't. If there is anyone at all, then it is him"