I Asked Before

[NOIRTRASH]

I asked who are the best writers ever. I got crickets.

If I asked for the best painter (Leonardo) or Sculptor (Michaelangelo) or composer (Bach) I wouldn't need to ask.

Shakespeare?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Last night I started reading ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FROM by Erich Maria Remarque. I'm a combat veteran as he was. Food, pussy, sleep, and filth are what I recall most, and what he writes of. He got that part right.

Good writers get it right, others write unicorn farts.

 

[ElectricBlue]

I asked who are the best writers ever. I got crickets.

If I asked for the best painter (Leonardo) or Sculptor (Michaelangelo) or composer (Bach) I wouldn't need to ask.

Shakespeare?

Except you'd get a debate on every one you've named here.

Picasso, Rodin, Beethoven
Kandinsky, Brancusi, Mozart
Tarkovsky, Moore, Cohen
Etc, etc, etc

It's a daft question, as you well know. As always, it depends on the definition of best, definition of genre, blah blah blah. There is no singular "best".

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Except you'd get a debate on every one you've named here.

Picasso, Rodin, Beethoven
Kandinsky, Brancusi, Mozart
Tarkovsky, Moore, Cohen
Etc, etc, etc

It's a daft question, as you well know. As always, it depends on the definition of best, definition of genre, blah blah blah. There is no singular "best".

Is Shakespeare better then you? Better than PILETTE?

Sports defeats your thesis.

There are standards for BEST and worst of everything.

 

[dombledore]

Well ...

Since the answer is going to be totally subjective, I'm going to submit Neil Gaiman, for his endless creativity and ability to spin worlds from thin air.

 

[Carnevil9]

Best writer ever? Jack Vance.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Since the answer is going to be totally subjective, I'm going to submit Neil Gaiman, for his endless creativity and ability to spin worlds from thin air.

SUBJECTIVE is the dulcet warble of PC apologists for mediocrity.

Subjective says, ITS MEH.

Because real standards exist. My taste discounts nothing that's real quality. I prefer full-figured girls but none are likely to win the MISS DEMOCRAT UNIVERSE title.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Sports defeats your thesis.

There are standards for BEST and worst of everything.

Sports are singular, defined events: 100 metre run, high jump, long jump, shot put. The parameters are all defined, so yes, a standard of "best" exists in sport.

Define the parameters for "best" in literature. Can't be done. Literature isn't sport.

 

[lovecraft68]

Add the words "in your opinion" and there would be some actual conversation on the topic.

 

[SamScribble]

I think one can make a case for Shakespeare & Co (most scholars accept that John Fletcher and others wrote bits of what we now think of as 'Shakespeare') being the best dramatist so far. But best writer? How do you compare plays with poems and short stories and novels and ...?

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I looked at online lists for the top authors, and was surprised by several names on it. BILL O'REILLY, c'mon, E.L. JAMES, c'mon. Close to 90% of the 100 I never heard of. One black made the lists, and her name was unknown to me. It wasn't Maya or Toni or Alice. No Hispanics. No Asians, No Africans. One Russian (Tolstoy).

Most American Nobel Laureates didn't make it.

No D.H.Lawrence. No Somerset Maughm. Dicjensm Shakesoeare, and Jane Austen made it. Rowling made it.

 

[sr71plt]

Guess your Internet research just isn't that good or source discerning.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

Is PILETTE E.L. James?

OMG

 

[NOIRTRASH]

HUCK FINN comes to mind.

Everyone who gates it never read it, and its suppressed everywhere. Even at Mark Twain High School near Washington.

Huck flees his drunken father and Jim the slave flees with him, except Jim wasn't a slave. Huck and Jim collide with plenty of bad stupid white people. Jim is maybe the most decent and noble character in the book. When he and Huck are captured he discovers he isn't a slave at all. Jim was ignorant. His status was common. A letter I have from 1889 indicates that Darkies lived at the Old Plantation 25 years after the war. Other records indicate my kin gave their former slaves land and mules or cash to those who wanted to settle other places. But many sold their land and mules and became dependent on Massa's charity.

 

[ChloeTzang]

As always, it depends on the definition of best, definition of genre, blah blah blah. There is no singular "best".

How about best by genre, and by period for that matter. IMHO that'd be far more specific. There's some genre's that, no matter how good the writer, I'm just ...bleeeech ... can't read 'em. It's so subjective. And as for 19th century russian literature .... yikes ... I've read thru most of them, but they're so booooorrrrring .... Dostoevsky makes a good bookend if you have the hard copies. As for Tolstory, I can watch the movies but the books ..... oh my.

And, I mean, E L James? On those "best" lists. She sold a lot of books but she's not "best" by a longshot, not as a writer. Bestsellers maybe, but again, what does that prove except she tapped a niche in the market that resonated with readers. Anthony Adverse did that back in the 1930's but whose ever heard of Hervey Allen these days? It probably resulted in the popularity of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind but the film was nowhere near as good. Personally, I think it's much better. In fifty years, E L James will have gone the same way.... but writers like Georgette Heyer will continue to be read, like Shapespeare, coz they're timeless.

I could pick my personal best's but likely hardly anyone would agree with me and that's fine, it's my taste. I'd far rather know what everyone else's "bests" are so I can check them out. Overall "bests" is either way to subjective or you get these lists decided on by popular vote because the mass of readers like light entertainment.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

How about best by genre, and by period for that matter. IMHO that'd be far more specific. There's some genre's that, no matter how good the writer, I'm just ...bleeeech ... can't read 'em. It's so subjective. And as for 19th century russian literature .... yikes ... I've read thru most of them, but they're so booooorrrrring .... Dostoevsky makes a good bookend if you have the hard copies. As for Tolstory, I can watch the movies but the books ..... oh my.

And, I mean, E L James? On those "best" lists. She sold a lot of books but she's not "best" by a longshot, not as a writer. Bestsellers maybe, but again, what does that prove except she tapped a niche in the market that resonated with readers. Anthony Adverse did that back in the 1930's but whose ever heard of Hervey Allen these days? It probably resulted in the popularity of Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind but the film was nowhere near as good. Personally, I think it's much better. In fifty years, E L James will have gone the same way.... but writers like Georgette Heyer will continue to be read, like Shapespeare, coz they're timeless.

I could pick my personal best's but likely hardly anyone would agree with me and that's fine, it's my taste. I'd far rather know what everyone else's "bests" are so I can check them out. Overall "bests" is either way to subjective or you get these lists decided on by popular vote because the mass of readers like light entertainment.

Russian Lit depends on translators. Most translators are boring. I tried the right translator and War & Peace came alive. Because the Usual Suspects aren't competent to get at what the author wrote. Its like translating the word SHIT! or FUCK! or others. OH MY GOODNESS loses something.

 

[NicoleZ]

As always, it depends on the definition of best, definition of genre, blah blah blah. There is no singular "best".

Absolutely! Add "in comparison to others of her/his time", "provided we can overcome personal biases against" (etc)

Let's say I put forward the author(-s) of Ecclesiastes and there's bound to be several who immediately condemn it on the grounds that it's part of a religious work, has no relevance to the present day or that "Springsteen/Dylan/2Cents is better because he speaks to me".

PS. Shakespeare really should be one of the names to feature in a discussion about the "best-ever" authors/writers.

 

[NOIRTRASH]

I researched BLOODY. I had no idea what Brits meant by the word.

There are several opinions for the etymology but what seems correct is the old application to the children of Royals, they were called BLOODS. The children of elites are often sources of torment for all.

 

[SamScribble]

And speaking of Shakespeare, a recent piece in The New Yorker

http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/the-radical-argument-of-the-new-oxford-shakespeare

 

[voluptuary_manque]

Oh, get over it. 'The best is the enemy of the good.' Just enjoy reading, listening to music, looking at art and enough with the invidious comparisons, already.

 

[LockeAndKey]

Chuck Tingle.