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On February 09 2013 04:58 Piy wrote:
I'm reading "The Still Point" by Amy Sackville. It's alright, perhaps one of the better books I've read by a modern author recently.
I just finished the other sections of The Canterbury Tales and rereading Troilus and Criseyde by Chaucer. For those interested in older texts I think Troilus and Criseyde is probably the best work of literature in the English language. Brilliantly written, really well observed characters and hilarious. Contains perhaps the most awkward romantic plot of all time, along with one of the most bizarre and unpredictable sex scenes.
After this I'm going to read the entire Asterix series to improve my French again.
Troilus and Criseyde is most certainly the greatest of Chauncers work but I don't believe it to be anywhere near the best work in English Literature. In my opinion Shakespeares version of the story is better and it is not even Shakespeares greatest work, which in my opinion is Hamlet.
The best work in English Literature is more likely to be Ulysses by Joyce or perhaps Great Expectations by Dickens. To expand outside of Britian Lolita by Nabokov is incredible and Absalom, Absalom by Faulkner is one of the greatest pieces of literature written in the English Language.
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To judge "the best novel in the English language" is to reach for a level of objectivity that does not exist. There are a number of works that are clearly a notch above the rest, but let's not pretend that any individual person is the nexus of critical judgement. Far more useful to say "this novel is really excellent, and here's why".
As I Lay Dying is better than Absalom, Absalom, in my opinion 
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On February 09 2013 06:31 farvacola wrote:To judge "the best novel in the English language" is to reach for a level of objectivity that does not exist. There are a number of works that are clearly a notch above the rest, but let's not pretend that any individual person is the nexus of critical judgement. Far more useful to say "this novel is really excellent, and here's why". As I Lay Dying is better than Absalom, Absalom, in my opinion
You and your logic and reason. Pssh don't you know this is the internet.
That being said I really like As I Lay Dying as well. Something about Absalom though just sticks with me and if I went back to read any Faulkner Absalom would be it
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Absalom, Absalom is indeed an excellent book. I just have a fetish for death in literature
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On February 09 2013 06:40 farvacola wrote:Absalom, Absalom is indeed an excellent book. I just have a fetish for death in literature
Agreed. Have your read anything by Cormac McCarthy. If you enjoy Faulkner you will most certainly enjoy McCarthy I feel like McCarthy picked up where Faulkner left off. In my opinion McCarthy is the greatest living author. Blood Meridian is a masterpiece of modern literature
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As I Lay Dying is awful. The greatest work of English literature is Atlas Shrugged.
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On February 09 2013 06:48 sam!zdat wrote:
As I Lay Dying is awful. The greatest work of English literature is Atlas Shrugged.
Are you serious. Atlas Shrugged is a joke. Philospohical rantings under a thin veil claimed to be a novel. You must be a philosophy major or a rightt wing nut job to honestly believe that book to be the greatest work of English Literature. Hell its not even the greatest work by a Russian writing in the english language. Nabokov makes Rand look like an amateur.
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^I think I like you, syn harvest I'm not the biggest fan of Cormac, but I definitely respect his work, particularly Blood Meridian.
Also be careful when responding to Sam, he likes to play trap cards 
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On February 09 2013 06:48 sam!zdat wrote:
As I Lay Dying is awful. The greatest work of English literature is Atlas Shrugged.
Rofl, so obvious.
Anyway the greatest work in French litterature is a much more important question.
I'll update you guys once I've read enough so I can cast judgement.
+ Show Spoiler +But if I had to choose for English, Hamlet would be the obvious choice. I need to read Ulysses though, I think it's right up my alley.
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I do believe one of those things, however
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Holy shit Corum, you need to get on that ASAP! Perhaps I'll throw up a Ulysses discussion blog, Irish modernism was one of college foci.
And yes Sam, I've still to convince you of the utility in ornamental expression!
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So would I. I need to start a third book too :p
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we gotta take it kinda slow though, I'm also reading Hegel and Marx and there's only one Sam
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Slow is the only way High Modernism makes any sense anyways.
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On February 09 2013 08:03 corumjhaelen wrote:Show nested quote +On February 09 2013 06:48 sam!zdat wrote:
As I Lay Dying is awful. The greatest work of English literature is Atlas Shrugged. Rofl, so obvious. Anyway the greatest work in French litterature is a much more important question. I'll update you guys once I've read enough so I can cast judgement. + Show Spoiler +But if I had to choose for English, Hamlet would be the obvious choice. I need to read Ulysses though, I think it's right up my alley.
The Greatest piece of French Literature is a much easier question to answer. The greatest novel in French is easily In Search of Lost Time by Proust. Every French writer aspires to his heights and unfortunatley noone has reached his level. I have only read the first four volumes of In Search of Lost Time because it is simply so daunting. But what I read was certainly some of the greatest literature ever conceived
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ugh why are we talking about 'the greatest so and so,' what are we, record store clerks?
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Reading Brave New World by Aldous Huxley in Philosophy as Literature class, I find it very intriguing.
The society people live in in this book looks like a utopia from the outside, but it's really anything but when you investigate it further.
I'm too tired to write more about it atm since I just shoveled snow for an hour or two lol...
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Ettick, what else are you reading for that class, if I may ask?
And Sam, I'm the best record store clerk.
Edit: Paradise Lost is great, I hope you enjoy it. Milton is mah boi.
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Just finished A Memory Of Light and I'm very happy the series is over and I wont have to obsess over what is gonna happen next. Im gonna start reading Paradise Lost in the next few days hopefully it will live up to the hype.
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EPT
