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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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greatest writing in the English language
    #22041642 - 08/04/15 11:11 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I read somewhere that Aleister Crowley once stated that the two greatest writings in the English language are the works of Shakespeare, and the Bible.

Do you agree/disagree, have something to add, or subtract?  I'd love to hear what some of the people on this forum might have to say about their feeling about the greatest writing in English.


(This really has nothing to do with Crowley, other than that he was extremely well read, and made bold claims.  Please do not go off on a tangent about Crowley).


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InvisibleSoul-Shine

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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22043545 - 08/04/15 05:59 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Shakespeare had a talent like no other to be able to bring life to the wonders and foibles of human nature. I would add two other names that echo, to me, of similar ilk. This would be Mark Twain and George Orwell.

Edgar Allan Poe, Lewis Carroll and Aldous Huxley's writings also ring true of the human condition. And the Beat generation writers... don't get me started, good stuff :super:


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: Soul-Shine]
    #22046658 - 08/05/15 11:02 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Yeah, those are good ones.  I would add Ambrose Bierce, Joseph Conrad, Philip K. Dick and William S. Burroughs.  But I'm not sure Crowley wasn't right about the very best being those two.  I wish I could get more insight on that.


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Offlineclock_of_omens
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22048346 - 08/05/15 04:25 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

I'm reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn right now and the main character's  grandmother told her mother that she should read one page of Shakespeare and one page of the bible to her children every night until they were old enough to do it themselves.

I don't know if he means the writing in itself is the best in those two or that they have the best stories. Either way, I'm not sure the bible should count as it wasn't originally written in English, and there are many different translations.


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: clock_of_omens]
    #22048618 - 08/05/15 05:04 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Very interesting. :thumbup:

Thanks for the contribution. :smile:


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OfflineNRustler
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22061273 - 08/08/15 12:52 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Hmmm, interesting topic. I'd half agree with Crowley's assertion. Shakespeare's works are an amazing achievement. Think of how many phrases still are used today that originated with Shakespeare. The Bible? Yeah, the King James Bible is also influential, but remember that it is a translation, so it is hard to claim it as part of the greatest writing in English. How much of the poetry of the King James Bible (and there is a lot of really good poetry in it) was in the original sources and how much originates with that translation? I really don't know, but it feels like a stretch to include it in the list.

So who is in my pantheon of great English writers? This is hard to say since it has changed throughout my life. Off the top of my head I would currently include the following poets in my list:
  • Gerard Manley Hopkins
  • Walt Whitman
  • T. S. Eliot
  • Theodore Roethke
  • Allen Ginsberg

And I would include the following novelists:
  • James Joyce
  • William Faulkner
  • Ernest Hemingway
  • Vladimir Nabokov
  • Ken Kesey

Neither of these lists is anywhere near exhaustive, but you will find much fine writing by reading almost anything written by these authors.

I wish I could include Adam Zagajewski on the poets list and Haruki Murakami on the novelists list, but their works aren't originally written in English. That their translated work is so damn good, it makes me want to learn Polish and Japanese so I could read their work in their original languages. It must be absolutely sublime.


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InvisibleDividedQuantumM
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: NRustler]
    #22061849 - 08/08/15 08:42 AM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Nice post. :thumbup:


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OfflineWScott
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Re: greatest writing in the English language [Re: DividedQuantum]
    #22067095 - 08/09/15 12:52 PM (8 years, 5 months ago)

Quote:

DividedQuantum said:
the works of Shakespeare, and the Bible




I have read a handful of plays and my opinion is that out of everything I have read, the kind of writing in Shakespeare has the most noticeable effect on my language faculty. I can attribute some of this to the fact that necessarily I am reading the text a little more slow and methodically, carefully reading footnotes to render as coherent a meaning as possible to the words, but also there is something beyond this that I can't explain. I remember once when studying King Lear I read the play 2 - 3 times in proximity and I could legitimately notice a significant change in my general phrasing of sentences for the better. As for the Bible, it gives me a unique feeling that I don't get from anything else. Can't explain it.


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