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Who Is The Greatest Writer?

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Webvan
All Kill No Skill
#21 - 2014-06-03 01:33:15 UTC
Dorian Tormak wrote:


So, who is, or was, the greatest writer?

The or my? Of that list, obviously the is Shakespeare, my is Poe.
Outside the list, Poe ranks high for me. Then there is Homer, Sun Tzu, Flavius Josephus, Unknown (Beowulf), Dickens, Tolkien, Bradbury, Jules Verne ...more. No particular "greatest".

I'm in it for the money

Ctrl+Alt+Shift+F12
Space Therapist
Better Days Ahead
#22 - 2014-06-03 01:45:26 UTC
Sumi

See my bio for rates and services.
stoicfaux
#23 - 2014-06-03 02:28:57 UTC
Hugh Hefner

Pon Farr Memorial: once every 7 years, all the carebears in high-sec must PvP or they will be temp-banned.
Sibyyl
Garoun Investment Bank
Gallente Federation
#24 - 2014-06-03 02:54:17 UTC
OP, I completely missed your mention of Shakespeare. I do love the bard, if for no other reason than this gem from Othello:
Quote:
I am one, sir, that comes to tell you your daughter and the Moor are now making the beast with two backs.


Ralph King-Griffin wrote:
Dostoyevsky

Agree very much with your addition, and want to tack on Kafka.

And Unsuccessful at Everything.

Joffy Aulx-Gao for CSM. Fix links and OGB. Ban stabs from plexes. Fulfill karmic justice.
Graygor
Federal Navy Academy
Gallente Federation
#25 - 2014-06-03 02:58:57 UTC
Sibyyl wrote:
And Unsuccessful at Everything.


We have a winner.

"I think you should buy a new Mayan calendar. Mine has muscle cars on it." - Kenneth O'Hara

"I dont think that can happen, you can see Gray has his invuln field on in his portrait." - Commissar "Cake" Kate
Debora Tsung
Perkone
Caldari State
#26 - 2014-06-03 06:31:53 UTC
Don't know half the names you posted here.

But I'd add Isaac Asimov and Stanislaw Lem to that list.

Stupidity should be a bannable offense.

Fighting back is more fun than not.

Sticky: AFK Cloaking Thread It's not pretty, but it's there.
Ila Dace
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#27 - 2014-06-03 12:29:37 UTC
Dorian Tormak wrote:
Myfanwy Heimdal wrote:
Sibyyl wrote:
Hemingway.


The. Thing. About. Ernest. Hemingway. Is. That. He. Never. Used. Long. Sentences. At. All.

Do you know what they say about guys who like long sentences?

They are repeat appenders.

If House played Eve: http://i.imgur.com/y7ShT.jpg

But in purple, I'm stunning!
Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#28 - 2014-06-03 15:01:40 UTC
Debora Tsung wrote:
Don't know half the names you posted here.

But I'd add Isaac Asimov and Stanislaw Lem to that list.

Dostoevsky and Asimov were great. I'd probably put Asimov in the top 20 somewhere. Stanislaw Lem... eewwwwww

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#29 - 2014-06-03 15:43:25 UTC
Debora Tsung wrote:


But I'd add Isaac Asimov and Stanislaw Lem to that list.



Sorry but I have to disagree.

I love Asimov. He comes up with great story ideas. But his writing itself is abyssmal. Boring. Cardboard characters. They are all the same. There is no difference in tone at all in works as divergent as Foundation and the Robot novels.

Great ideas but seriously generic actual writing.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#30 - 2014-06-03 15:48:44 UTC
Krixtal Icefluxor wrote:
Debora Tsung wrote:


But I'd add Isaac Asimov and Stanislaw Lem to that list.



Sorry but I have to disagree.

I love Asimov. He comes up with great story ideas. But his writing itself is abyssmal. Boring. Cardboard characters. They are all the same. There is no difference in tone at all in works as divergent as Foundation and the Robot novels.

Great ideas but seriously generic actual writing.

True, except as far as character goes, that doesn't necessarily have to do with the writing, but it's more to do with the preference of the artist. Some great writers don't necessarily have great characters or even a great story, but I agree for the most part his writing was very basic.

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!
Khergit Deserters
Crom's Angels
#31 - 2014-06-03 17:11:19 UTC
Joseph Conrad
And not just because he was a lower class Polish guy who eventually became a ship captain and had adventures in crummy places with strange people all over the world. And then retired to write novels in perfect Victorian English. But because his novels are full of so much psycho-drama and insights into the shadow side of people. Amazingly modern. (I just finished The Rescue, which is one of less-known but best ones).

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy, also known as Leo Tolstoy
Check out War and Peace sometime-- it's a page-turner. That guy could really nail conversations between characters. And I can't imagine how he managed to describe events at parties, pubs, drunken soldiers romps, etc. so insightfully. And I also can't imagine how he understood female psychology so we. And as a side note, we was also a really nice guy who liberated his serfs and built schools for them. That didn't make him very popular with the Tsar or his fellow aristocrats.

Joseph Campbell
Whoever mentioned him, agreed. Maybe not as much a great writer as a really insightful thinker.

Graham Greene
What a master of the English language. And of organizing thoughts, so the story just flows.

Cormac McCarthy Another guy whose language just flows so beautifully. Too bad he always picks such outrageously unpleasant themes to write about.

Douglas Adams
Just to rebut that statement about him being a ******* hipster! Blink
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#32 - 2014-06-03 17:17:33 UTC
Khergit Deserters wrote:
Joseph Conrad
And not just because he was a lower class Polish guy who eventually became a ship captain and had adventures in crummy places with strange people all over the world. And then retired to write novels in perfect Victorian English. But because his novels are full of so much psycho-drama and insights into the shadow side of people. Amazingly modern. (I just finished The Rescue, which is one of less-known but best ones).


...and without him there would be no "Apocalypse Now" Big smile

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#33 - 2014-06-03 17:36:02 UTC
Khergit Deserters wrote:

Graham Greene
What a master of the English language. And of organizing thoughts, so the story just flows.

I love recommending his work to people,

"which one should i read?"

Any of them.

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
Ian Morbius
Robby Altair Corporation
#34 - 2014-06-03 23:40:34 UTC
Khergit Deserters wrote:
Joseph Conrad
And not just because he was a lower class Polish guy who eventually became a ship captain and had adventures in crummy places with strange people all over the world. And then retired to write novels in perfect Victorian English. But because his novels are full of so much psycho-drama and insights into the shadow side of people. Amazingly modern. (I just finished The Rescue, which is one of less-known but best ones).

The Secret Agent by Conrad was a good read.
Khergit Deserters
Crom's Angels
#35 - 2014-06-04 02:09:09 UTC
Ian Morbius wrote:
Khergit Deserters wrote:
Joseph Conrad
And not just because he was a lower class Polish guy who eventually became a ship captain and had adventures in crummy places with strange people all over the world. And then retired to write novels in perfect Victorian English. But because his novels are full of so much psycho-drama and insights into the shadow side of people. Amazingly modern. (I just finished The Rescue, which is one of less-known but best ones).

The Secret Agent by Conrad was a good read.

That was a great one too. That guy walking around with a squeeze bulb in his hand, tube up the sleeve, and liquid bomb in his overcoat pocket....
Marsha Mallow
#36 - 2014-06-04 12:29:01 UTC
Lots of the above, maybe these too (it really is down to taste)
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Jane Austen
Dante
T.S. Eliot
Ovid
Rumi
Sylvia Plath
Ursula Le Guin

Even though I hated reading Dickens as a child, I'm tempted to look at them again.

Whoever mentioned War & Peace I've read the first 5 chapters a few times in the last 6 months, really just can't get into it.

I quite like William Blake too but might just be the imagery in the books that intrigue me. I used to collect these (hope it's alright to link this here). They're really nice replica folios with some stunning illustrated sets. Completely different to reading a normal mass produced book. Although the large volumes are a bit heavy if you have small hands.

Ripard Teg > For the morons in the room:

Sweets > U can dd my face any day
Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#37 - 2014-06-04 14:34:12 UTC
Geez guys, there's too many authors listed here for me to even bother looking up, nevermind reading them all :p

Guess I got a lot of work to do. Where to start though? I'd like to give Douglas Adams another try to be honest. I wonder how the books compare to the movie.

Currently reading A Dance With Dragons, Wizard and Glass, and The Living Dead Featuring Stories by Clive Barker and other big names. Going to add one more books to the pile so I will have a look around next time I go out.

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!
Krixtal Icefluxor
INLAND EMPIRE Galactic
#38 - 2014-06-04 15:03:39 UTC
I found Douglas Adam's "Hitchhiker" stuff to be silly and trite. The humor was too "easy" for my taste.

What I did enjoy was his Dirk Gently series. Hilarious. Much more hilarious. And better story and writing.

"He has mounted his hind-legs, and blown crass vapidities through the bowel of his neck."  - Ambrose Bierce on Oscar Wilde's Lecture in San Francisco 1882
Ralph King-Griffin
New Eden Tech Support
#39 - 2014-06-04 16:44:16 UTC
Dorian Tormak wrote:
Geez guys, there's too many authors listed here for me to even bother looking up, nevermind reading them all :p

Guess I got a lot of work to do. Where to start though? I'd like to give Douglas Adams another try to be honest. I wonder how the books compare to the movie.

Currently reading A Dance With Dragons, Wizard and Glass, and The Living Dead Featuring Stories by Clive Barker and other big names. Going to add one more books to the pile so I will have a look around next time I go out.

Well I'll cut out most of my author's and recommend

Joseph Heller's "Catch 22"

as an absolute priority.
Not only is it the source of the phrase, it's probably one of the funniest books you're ever likely to read .

Murderers of Negotiable Motivations

=]|[=
Dorian Tormak
RBON United
#40 - 2014-06-04 16:51:28 UTC
Slade Trillgon wrote:
I personally think Clive Barker is as good as or better than Stephen King, but I am typically called a heretic for saying that Lol

Just had to throw that single comment out there as I like a majority of the authors presented so far.

I also spit on my screen from laughter at some of the posts above as well.

What's a good book by Clive Barker? I tried reading Imajica a few years back but that was too much for me at the time.

I will probably look out for both Catch 22 and the Dirk Gently (Dirk Diggler?) series. Wait wtf is Dirk Diggler? For some reason I thought that was off of Red Dwarf.

Ok. It's Dwayne Dibbley off of Red Dwarf. Dwayne Dibbley. Lol classic.

Holy Satanic Christ! This is a Goddamn Signature!
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