All-Time Writers Draft II

[Jasi]

I agree, he was great.
So great that Lebowsky picked him at the beginning of the 2nd round :D

[MasterDurant24]

I agree, he was great.
So great that Lebowsky picked him at the beginning of the 2nd round :D
Aha...


:cry:

[MasterDurant24]

http://www.china.org.cn/images/122185.jpg

Jin Yong is the best-selling Chinese author alive and is the man that gave the martial arts genre popularity. His works in the 50's to 70's gave him a reputation as one of the finest Wuxia(martial arts fiction) authors ever.
I got negged...:facepalm

[Jasi]

Snoop_Cat on the clock for a double pick

[Snoop_Cat]

Sorry I can't write something up for them, I have 3 midterms coming up and I'm stressed the fock out studying for them.

My Picks: (hope this throws some people off)

the apostle Paul.
writer of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon

Essentially wrote half the new testament. Romans is essentially a consensus top 3-5 book in importance, with 1 Corinthians and Galatians also being up there in the top 10. Much of his work laid the foundations for the most popular religion in the world today.


William Golding
-Lord of the Flies, enough said.

[raiderfan19]

Sorry I can't write something up for them, I have 3 midterms coming up and I'm stressed the fock out studying for them.

My Picks: (hope this throws some people off)

the apostle Paul.
writer of Romans, 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon

Essentially wrote half the new testament. Romans is essentially a consensus top 3-5 book in importance, with 1 Corinthians and Galatians also being up there in the top 10. Much of his work laid the foundations for the most popular religion in the world today.


William Golding
-Lord of the Flies, enough said.
Choosing either God or the individual writers of the Bible has been mentioned before, and he actually isn't the Biblical author I'd have chosen but good picks.

[Snoop_Cat]

Choosing either God or the individual writers of the Bible has been mentioned before, and he actually isn't the Biblical author I'd have chosen but good picks.

I was going to choose two Biblical authors, but I think I have a pretty strong argument over choosing Paul as the first one.

[Jasi]

Surely St Paul's writings are the most influential, even though, since we consider the literary style as well, some other NT author may have a case.


MasterDurant is on the clock now

[Jasi]

MasterDurant has a pending pick.

Boozehound is up.

[ZeN]

Choosing either God or the individual writers of the Bible has been mentioned before, and he actually isn't the Biblical author I'd have chosen but good picks.
Psalms FTW..

[Jasi]

Still iphone but alexandre dumas

I forgot, I never asked you: p

[raiderfan19]

[QUOTE=Jasi]I forgot, I never asked you: p

[boozehound]

OK, MY pick? I am going to go with the polish born Joseph Conrad!
http://www.blacklamb.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/conradphoto.png
This cat was one of the most influential writers of the victorian era, and is viewed as a formative writer of modernist literature. many of his stories use the response of the human spirit to adversity as a focal point and are, in many ways, the first psychological thrillers. Many are set in maritime environments (including one of my favorites, the secret sharer). Most famous for "the heart of darkness", a brilliant novella about the colonial experience and psychological response to 'going native', he was a prolific writer with a distinct and influential narrative style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad

[Jasi]

^ Brilliant.

[Jasi]

Via PM - Fatal9 selects Thomas Mann.


Timmy D is up, and MasterDurant still has a pending pick.

[LilKateMoss]

OK, MY pick? I am going to go with the polish born Joseph Conrad!
http://www.blacklamb.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2007/12/conradphoto.png
This cat was one of the most influential writers of the victorian era, and is viewed as a formative writer of modernist literature. many of his stories use the response of the human spirit to adversity as a focal point and are, in many ways, the first psychological thrillers. Many are set in maritime environments (including one of my favorites, the secret sharer). Most famous for "the heart of darkness", a brilliant novella about the colonial experience and psychological response to 'going native', he was a prolific writer with a distinct and influential narrative style.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Conrad

Mother****er...although I was expecting someone to pick him soon.

[boozehound]

Mother****er...although I was expecting someone to pick him soon.
Yeah, Im surprised he was still there (along with some others). Just shows you how many brilliant, best of all time type writers there are out there. Plus, I still have england and the US to mine for my later picks.

[Lebowsky]

God I hate picking last.

[LJJ]

Lol @ booze "cheating" his own "one per country" rule. :D

He already picked two French dudes, now he picked Conrad but I'm sure he'll pick another British author down the line.

[Jasi]

God I hate picking last.

But you get to pick two in a row...
I am exactly in the middle and have to wait the longest time between each pick

a steady trickle of pain

[Lebowsky]

But you get to pick two in a row...
I am exactly in the middle and have to wait the longest time between each pick

a steady trickle of pain

But you wait exactly the same between your picks. I go from waiting 0 to waiting max. Plus you signed up for another draft :oldlol: .

[Jasi]

But you wait exactly the same between your picks. I go from waiting 0 to waiting max. Plus you signed up for another draft :oldlol: .

Ahah true!

[MasterDurant24]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Tagore3.jpg

Rabindrath Tagore is quite a different pick than the others, who is known for writing two national anthems, for India and Bangladesh. Tagore was the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature. He is probably one of the most versatile of those to be picked, being known for reshaping Bengali music, writing critically acclaimed stories, being a prolific painter, writing plays, and penning essays about his politicall views.

[Timmy D for MVP]

Cool. I select:

Samuel Coleridge
http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/pictures/samuel_coleridge.jpg

was an English poet, Romantic, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets. He is probably best known for his poems The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and Kubla Khan, as well as for his major prose work Biographia Literaria. His critical work, especially on Shakespeare, was highly influential, and he helped introduce German idealist philosophy to English-speaking culture. He coined many familiar words and phrases, including the celebrated suspension of disbelief. He was a major influence, via Emerson, on American transcendentalism.

Notable Works:

Ryme of the Ancient Mariner
Kubla Khan
Frost at Midnight
Biographica Literaria

[Jasi]

Ladies (?) and gentlemen, with my 5th round pick I give you Thomas Stearns Eliot

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Books/Pix/pictures/2009/11/6/1257514401952/TS-Eliot-in-front-of-book-001.jpg


arguably the most important English-language poet of the 20th century.

The poem that made his name, The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock—started in 1910 and published in Chicago in 1915—is regarded as a masterpiece of the modernist movement, and was followed by some of the best-known poems in the English language, including Gerontion (1920), The Waste Land (1922), The Hollow Men (1925), Ash Wednesday (1930), and Four Quartets (1945). He is also known for his seven plays, particularly Murder in the Cathedral (1935). He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1948.

[Jasi]

iamgine's on the clock

[Jailblazers7]

Damn, I was considering T.S. with my up coming pick. Very nice selection.

On a semi related note, i was just reading some just reading some Poe and read The Happiest Day for the hundreth time. One of my favorite poems by him. Its fairly straightforward but it has such a raw pure, quality. Its one of the first works he ever wrote and never fails to resonate with me. Wishing he was on my squad now.

[iamgine]

Dang, I thought Fuhqueue was up. Thanks Jasi.

I pick Rene Descartes:

http://www.cartoonstock.com/newscartoons/cartoonists/rmc/lowres/rmcn90l.jpg

[Fatal9]

Fuhqueue is up.

Via PM - Fatal9 selects Thomas Mann.
Thanks.

http://auden.stanford.edu/cgi-bin/auden/media/thomas%20mann%201937%20van%20vechten.jpg

One of the giants of modern literature. Probably the second biggest figure in German literature (behind Goethe, third if you include Nietzsche). His novels are an interweaving mix of philosophy (draws a lot from Nietzsche), theology, politics and marked by his use of irony and exploration of the human condition like few novelists can/have.

Favorite work (also the only works I've read):

Death in Venice - usually considered his greatest work (disagree after reading Faustus) and also his most widely read, probably has to do more with the length than anything else
Doctor Faustus - takes the Faust myth and applies it to the life of a composer

Other notable masterpieces:

Buddenbrooks
The Magic Mountain
Joseph and his Brothers

[Jasi]

raiderfan is up

FU has a pending pick

[Fatal9]

raiderfan19 selects Moses via PM.

I select Moses. Author of THE most influential and discussed book in history(the Torah and more specifically Genesis).

Jailblazers is up.

[Jailblazers7]

I select James Baldwin.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2007/06/18/books/baldwin533.jpg

Great authors who's work deal heavily with the subjects of self identity, sex, and race. Plus, he's black AND gay. How do you like that for a diversity pick?

[boozehound]

raiderfan19 selects Moses via PM.

I select Moses. Author of THE most influential and discussed book in history(the Torah and more specifically Genesis).

Jailblazers is up.
while I dont have a problem with paul really, moses is clearly a stretch. he didnt write shit. Its codified oral traditions written centuries after the actual events. Not a writer. And this isnt debatable like homer, this is clearly the case where moses was not the author.

[Jasi]

while I dont have a problem with paul really, moses is clearly a stretch. he didnt write shit. Its codified oral traditions written centuries after the actual events. Not a writer. And this isnt debatable like homer, this is clearly the case where moses was not the author.

I agree.
Alleged authors shouldn't count, only actual ones should, imo.

[Lebowsky]

I select W.B. Yeats.

http://ieslitoralinireland.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/yates.jpg

Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Butler_Yeats):

William Butler Yeats (pronounced /ˈjeɪts/; 13 June 1865

[boozehound]

Lol @ booze "cheating" his own "one per country" rule. :D

He already picked two French dudes, now he picked Conrad but I'm sure he'll pick another British author down the line.
how dare you! Camus was born in Algeria and lived there throughout the formative years of his life. Almost half of his life before he moved to paris and even then he was heavily involved in algerian politics. Clearly an algerian writer first and foremost (unless you consider someone like ben franklin to be english first).


And, conrad was born in the ukraine to a polish family, spoke english with a polish accent, and was 36 before he moved to Britain.

[Lebowsky]

With my second pick, I select my countryman [B]Benito P

[Jasi]

Gosh... I'm feeling ignorant.
This is the first writer in this draft I never heard of.

[Lebowsky]

Gosh... I'm feeling ignorant.
This is the first writer in this draft I never heard of.

He's not very well-known outside of Spain, I guess. His face was on the old 1000 pesetas bills, prior to the introduction of the Euro.

http://www.cstse.es/wp-content/uploads/2007/04/p-158-1000-pesetas.JPG

Edit: **** I've just realized he looks just like my dad.

[LJJ]

how dare you! Camus was born in Algeria and lived there throughout the formative years of his life. Almost half of his life before he moved to paris and even then he was heavily involved in algerian politics. Clearly an algerian writer first and foremost (unless you consider someone like ben franklin to be english first).


And, conrad was born in the ukraine to a polish family, spoke english with a polish accent, and was 36 before he moved to Britain.

Now that I think about it, you are right.

Heart of Darkness is definitely a Polish novel.

[Jailblazers7]

I select [B]Julio Cort

[Lebowsky]

[QUOTE=Jailblazers7]I select [B]Julio Cort

[Fuhqueue]

Sorry about the delay folks.. without further ado, Team Fuhqueue selects Euripides out of Salamis Tech.

http://i52.tinypic.com/k99duc.jpg

The team's first true classical era author, Euripides fills a gap in the roster whilst providing impeccable literary credentials. He was a figure of ridicule to some in his own time, who criticised his lowering the tone of traditional, dignified tragedy with the vulgar realism of ordinary life, flawed heroes, and radical ideas on the gods, morality and fate. Yet his dramas are perhaps the most influential of the ancient bards. He explored the psyche and internal personal tensions of his characters, and the tragi-comedy structure informed all subsequent dramatic theatre of Greece and Rome. The pre-eminence in evoking melancholic emotion that Aristotle ascribed to Euripides can be seen in plays like The Trojan Women, Herakles and The Bacchae.

[raiderfan19]

On an iphone, robert louis stevenson

[Jasi]

Fuhqueue is up, followed by iamgine who I predict will pick Hegel

[Fuhqueue]

I select Ralph Waldo Emerson.

[iamgine]

Charles Darwin

http://weetlogs.scilogs.be/gallery/5/Darwin_as_monkey.gif

[Jailblazers7]

I considered taking Darwin just because I knew iamgine would pick him eventually lol.

[Fatal9]

updated php, Jasi's up. Nice pick with Emerson even though he was part of the douchiest sounding movement (transcendentalists...never liked that name, too arrogant). Wanted to get him later in the draft. Yeats as well. Conrad slipped more than I thought, would have taken him but I didn't want another English novelist. My favorite novels by him are The Secret Agent and Under Western Eyes (haven't read Lord Jim or Nostromo though).

[Jasi]

I select Aleksandr Pushkin.

I already have Dosto, but I just can't stand the greatest Russian poet and playwright to still be on the board at the 6th round.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/2b/AleksandrPushkin.jpg/487px-AleksandrPushkin.jpg

His works are among the best of Romanticism and overall literature, ranging from poems to novels to drama to tales in verse. His masterpieces incude:

Evgenij Onegin
Boris Godunov
The Stone Guest
The Tales of the Late Ivan Petrovich Belkin
The Captain's Daughter
The Bronze Horseman



Pushkin is usually credited with developing Russian literature. Not only is he seen as having originated the highly nuanced level of language which characterizes Russian literature after him, but he is also credited with substantially augmenting the Russian lexicon. Where he found gaps in the Russian vocabulary, he devised calques. His rich vocabulary and highly sensitive style are the foundation for modern Russian literature. His talent set up new records for development of the Russian language and culture. He became the father of Russian literature in 19th century, marking the highest achievements of 18th century and the beginning of literary process of 19th century. Alexander Pushkin introduced Russia to all the European literary genres as well as a great number of West European writers.


Pushkin is considered the central representative of The Age of Romanticism in Russian literature, he can't be labelled unequivocally as a Romantic: Russian critics have traditionally argued that his works represent a path from neo-Classicism through Romanticism to Realism, while an alternative assessment suggests that "he had an ability to entertain contrarities which may seem Romantic in origin, but is ultimately subversive of all fixed points of view, all single outlooks, including the Romantic" and that "he is simultaneously Romantic and not Romantic".

[Fatal9]

skipping timmy d...


I'll take John Keats

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_RMIeFF2Drjg/S4HW0avKNaI/AAAAAAAABtI/2SK5TM-lO30/s400/John_Keats_by_William_Hilton.jpg

He was one of the most major figures of romanticism, and one who is definitely more quoted and analyzed out of any of the other romantic English poets. His poems are sensuous and vivid, even for a romantic, as he uses descriptions that combine all the senses to heighten the experience of his poems. What always astounds those who read about his life is that he hadn't truly undertaken poetry until he was 18, but by 21 he was putting out masterpiece after masterpiece. The tragedy always when discussing him is his early death that cut short his genius. He died at 25, having put out great poetry for only 4 years, though by then he had already produced more great poetry than some poets do in their lifetime.

Favorite work:
Eve of St Agnes (if you liked Romeo and Juliet, you’ll really like this)
Ode to Nightingale (i like all the odes, but this one sticks out. plus it inspired the title of one of my favorite books)
His Letters (seriously)

Other work:
La Belle Dame sans Merci
Lamia
Many sonnets
Odes of 1819
The Fall of Hyperion

boozehound is up.

[Timmy D for MVP]

I wonder what you guys will think of this pick:

Issac Asimov
http://saladehistoria.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/isaac-asimov.jpg

was an American author and professor of biochemistry at Boston University, best known for his works of science fiction and for his popular science books. Asimov was one of the most prolific writers of all time, having written or edited more than 500 books and an estimated 9,000 letters and postcards. His works have been published in nine of the ten major categories of the Dewey Decimal System (The sole exception being the 100s: philosophy and psychology, although he did write a foreword for The Humanist way, which is published in the 100s).

Isaac Asimov is widely considered a master of hard science fiction and, along with Robert A. Heinlein and Arthur C. Clarke, he was considered one of the "Big Three" science fiction writers during his lifetime. Asimov's most famous work is the Foundation Series; his other major series are the Galactic Empire series and the Robot series, both of which he later tied into the same fictional universe as the Foundation Series to create a unified "future history" for his stories much like those pioneered by Robert A. Heinlein and previously produced by Cordwainer Smith and Poul Anderson. He penned numerous short stories, among them "Nightfall", which in 1964 was voted by the Science Fiction Writers of America the best short science fiction story of all time, an accolade that many still find persuasive. Asimov wrote the Lucky Starr series of juvenile science-fiction novels using the pen name Paul French.

Notable Works:

The Foundation Stories
The Robot Stories (Invented the Three Laws System)
Galactic Empire Series
Also wrote many essays for science publications.

EDIT: Prob won't be my last author of this style either... :D

[Rizko]

Surprised by the severe lack of Eastern writers. I know everyone in this draft lives in the Western Hemisphere, but you guys seem pretty well read. I have to think that a lot of Eastern writers are getting slept at this point.

[Jasi]

I had considered Asimov for a last round pick.
A genre-writer, with a huge mass of work, not the peak of his genre, but close and probably the most influent.

[Jasi]

Surprised by the severe lack of Eastern writers. I know everyone in this draft lives in the Western Hemisphere, but you guys seem pretty well read. I have to think that a lot of Eastern writers are getting slept at this point.

Shhhh....!

[Jasi]

I have decided not to pick Romantic English poets for a matter of balance between eras and nationalities (at least, as of now, I may change if some names don't slip to me), but Keats would have been my 1st or 2nd choice in that area.

[Timmy D for MVP]

I had considered Asimov for a last round pick.
A genre-writer, with a huge mass of work, not the peak of his genre, but close and probably the most influent.

I don't think he as a writer is the peak of the genre but I do think the Foundation series is the peak as far as books go. The only other one I've ever read that I would argue being possibly better is, actually that'd be name dropping. So lets just say ****.

[Timmy D for MVP]

Surprised by the severe lack of Eastern writers. I know everyone in this draft lives in the Western Hemisphere, but you guys seem pretty well read. I have to think that a lot of Eastern writers are getting slept at this point.

I was debating taking a Chinese author. I prob will take with my next pick if he/she falls.

[Jasi]

I don't think he as a writer is the peak of the genre but I do think the Foundation series is the peak as far as books go. The only other one I've ever read that I would argue being possibly better is, actually that'd be name dropping. So lets just say ****.

Yeah, him.
And other 3 names I'd also consider, because I like this genre - but probably I'm not going to include it in my roster at this point.

[Jailblazers7]

I've got an Eastern writer in my sights. Idk if he/she will continue to fall.

[Lebowsky]

I've got 3 different asian writers in mind at this point. Let's see if I'm able to pick any of them.

[Fatal9]

masterdurant is up.


booze has a pick pending.

[MasterDurant24]

http://www.myanmars.net/myanmar-history/albert-einstein.jpg

Father of modern phsyics, published over 300 scientific and 150 nonscientific works, is one of the most well-known scientists of all time. Dealt with the theory of relativity, quantom theory, statisitcal mechanics, and the photon theory of life. Recieved a Nobel Prize in Physics.

[Snoop_Cat]

Galileo Galilei

Stephen King

[Timmy D for MVP]

Galileo Galilei

Stephen King

Aww damnit I thought I had my last three picks locked up!

[Timmy D for MVP]

Scratch that we have four left....

[Jailblazers7]

Who's up now?

[Jasi]

MasterDurant with his 7th round pick.

Boozehound still has a pending pick.

[boozehound]

uh oh. my bad. from when? Im in the middle of lab, so I wont make it till later today. sorry guys

[Jasi]

uh oh. my bad. from when? Im in the middle of lab, so I wont make it till later today. sorry guys

You have your 6th round pick pending + your 7th round one is coming shortly, after MasterDurant.

How did your dissertation go?

[Fatal9]

I'm going to go ahead and pick, it's been over 13 hrs (meaning we are nearing both md and booze being skipped) and booze has already been skipped a couple of times. MD has one pending pick and booze has two.

I take Du Fu in light of all this talk of Eastern literature.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eZdrsewW2yo/SnCVQ6IpPwI/AAAAAAAAAD4/-2o-gMdEZXk/s400/Dufu.jpg

Haven't read him or know much about him so I'll wiki this...

Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. He is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.

Although initially he was little known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages.[1] He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton or Hugo".[2]

Du Fu's popularity grew to such an extent that it is as hard to measure his influence as that of Shakespeare in England: it was hard for any Chinese poet not to be influenced by him.

Timmy D is up.

[boozehound]

You have your 6th round pick pending + your 7th round one is coming shortly, after MasterDurant.

How did your dissertation go?
it went well. still have some suggestions to incorporate and some corrections to finish, but the public presentation and defense went awesome. plus, they all signed the paper, so thats what matters.

[boozehound]

it went well. still have some suggestions to incorporate and some corrections to finish, but the public presentation and defense went awesome. plus, they all signed the paper, so thats what matters.
OK, I have 2 picks to make? Let me go over who is on the board and I will get it done.

[boozehound]

OK, So, I am going to officially violate my one country rule to accommodate two of my favorite authors of all time. SO many good ones left (ive hardly touched the last half of the 20th century) but both of these authors have books that really touched me or influenced my life.
http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1258068116p5/68346.jpg
The first pick in this post is Venedict Yerofeyev, a postmodern russian author most famous for his prose-poem Moscow-Petushki (moscow to the end of the line, moscow in circles depending on the translation). THis book about the incredibly drunken worldview of a recently fired utility crew foreman/intellectual goign to visit his child in Petushki. This is seriously one of the best and engaging books I have ever read, despite its limited premise. While he has other works, this is the only one of his books I have read. But its enough to put him in my top 5 authors of all time (which is not the same as my first 5 picks). deceptively philosophical and hilarious, this book inspired the drunkest and most successful period of my life, which I may recount one of these days and is still an inspiration. THis was not published in russian until decades after it was written and shortly before he died.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venedikt_Erofeev
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow-Petushki

The second pick is Mikhail Bulgakov, author of Master and the Margarita, the best philosophically oriented novel of all time IMO. GOtta run, but it is brilliant.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/Bulgakov.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bulgakov

[Sterb Hempel]

OK, I have 2 picks to make? Let me go over who is on the board and I will get it done.


http://i239.photobucket.com/albums/ff153/salparadise67/Abbie-Hoffman.jpg
far out man... pick me and we'll take down the rest of these squares

[Jasi]

I like Yerofeyev.
He's a very obscure author, at least here in Italy, but he deserves a lot of credit.

On the other hand, I failed to see why Bulgakov is so admired, when I read MaM (my bad for sure, of course).

[Timmy D for MVP]

I'm going to go ahead and pick, it's been over 13 hrs (meaning we are nearing both md and booze being skipped) and booze has already been skipped a couple of times. MD has one pending pick and booze has two.

I take Du Fu in light of all this talk of Eastern literature.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_eZdrsewW2yo/SnCVQ6IpPwI/AAAAAAAAAD4/-2o-gMdEZXk/s400/Dufu.jpg

Haven't read him or know much about him so I'll wiki this...

Du Fu was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. He is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets.

Although initially he was little known to other writers, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese literary culture. Of his poetic writing, nearly fifteen hundred poems have been preserved over the ages.[1] He has been called the "Poet-Historian" and the "Poet-Sage" by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Shakespeare, Milton or Hugo".[2]

Du Fu's popularity grew to such an extent that it is as hard to measure his influence as that of Shakespeare in England: it was hard for any Chinese poet not to be influenced by him.

Timmy D is up.

:roll:

It's funny that you finished saying I'm up cause I was gonna take Du Fu. We were learning about him in my class the other day and reading some stuff. Nice pick.

Alright give me a sec here...

[Timmy D for MVP]

Damn I had my back up all set up and then I got distracted by another writer...

Alright lets take:

Wu Cheng'en
http://history.cultural-china.com/chinaWH/images/exbig_images/b3a6dac7b7dbeeb7b7f090d4ef741b9b.jpg

pen name "Sheyang Hermit," was a Chinese novelist and poet of the Ming Dynasty, best known for being the probable author of one of the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, Journey to the West.

Notable Works:

Widely accepted as the author of Journey to the West which as you see up there is one of the Four Classical Novels.

[Jasi]

I'll go East later on.
For the moment I go to South America, and pick a writer whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez defined "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."

Pablo Neruda.

http://blogs.lanacion.com.ar/martiniano/files/2009/07/neruda340.jpg

[boozehound]

I'll go East later on.
For the moment I go to South America, and pick a writer whom Gabriel Garcia Marquez defined "the greatest poet of the 20th century in any language."

Pablo Neruda.

http://blogs.lanacion.com.ar/martiniano/files/2009/07/neruda340.jpg
beautiful pick

[Jailblazers7]

C'mon fellas lets keep this thing going.

Iamgine now has a pending pick and Fuhqueque is up.

[boozehound]

I like Yerofeyev.
He's a very obscure author, at least here in Italy, but he deserves a lot of credit.

On the other hand, I failed to see why Bulgakov is so admired, when I read MaM (my bad for sure, of course).
well, I would say to each their own, but you are clearly insane. I will agree that MnM can be a little obtuse and may be slightly overrated, but overall, its just brilliant. I probably enjoy the concept of it as much as its execution. still a top 20 novel from last century imo

[brooks_thompson]

this thing has gone longer than i thought. i'd like to jump in and catch up on the discussion but, effort

[boozehound]

this thing has gone longer than i thought. i'd like to jump in and catch up on the discussion but, effort
no worries. convo is basically limited to statements on the more recent picks, so jump in.

[boozehound]

this thing has gone longer than i thought. i'd like to jump in and catch up on the discussion but, effort
also, the first post has an updated list of the draft

[Jailblazers7]

I think fuhqueques time is probably up.

Raiderfan can pick now.

[Fuhqueue]

Profuse apologies again guys... I select Aldous Huxley, a great man of novels, short stories and essays.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lt1HntCzNQ8/RxUICSEFq3I/AAAAAAAAAUU/8YxkImP9wGw/s320/aldous-huxley.gif

His immense stature in several traditions means he can fill our needs in multiple positions, bringing a high level of erudition and flair to each. It can be said our squad now has a slight skills overlap between Orwell and Huxley, but we simply felt he's too talented to not pick up, still on the board late in the 7th round.

[Lebowsky]

Profuse apologies again guys... I select Aldous Huxley, a great man of novels, short stories and essays.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_lt1HntCzNQ8/RxUICSEFq3I/AAAAAAAAAUU/8YxkImP9wGw/s320/aldous-huxley.gif

His immense stature in several traditions means he can fill our needs in multiple positions, bringing a high level of erudition and flair to each. It can be said our squad now has a slight skills overlap between Orwell and Huxley, but we simply felt he's too talented to not pick up, still on the board late in the 7th round.

**** you :mad:

[brooks_thompson]

skimming over the list of picks from the first three rounds, i'm completely on board with boozehound's first few picks. wilde and garcia marquez flipped my world upside down in high school and college, respectively.

i am disappointed that dickens dropped to 4th overall; he was my first true writer 'crush' in junior high.

and for the guy who picked aristotle 5th, do you agree with a lot of the stuff he wrote or do you just think he wrote well? if you stated that already, sorry, i've been gone and catching up a couple pages at a time.


edit: oh, and glad somebody picked jane austen, but it took way too long! she's very english, but i find the way her style right up there with dickens; despite its wordiness, it's so easy to read and alternately sly and subtle in its criticism of the society of the time.

[iamgine]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/10/23/128692578788290356.jpg

[Jasi]

Who's up?
Raiderfan?

[boozehound]

Who's up?
Raiderfan?
he'll pick judas
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v4oTNEL4aC4/S_5mWzAjZAI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qiQ3o_29ntA/s1600/Judas_Hanging.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Judas

[boozehound]

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

http://images.icanhascheezburger.com/completestore/2008/10/23/128692578788290356.jpg
I actually think that Iamgine's last 2 picks (darwin and JJR) are his two best writers by far. Not based on content or substance, but as far as actual true use of the expressive capabilities of language.

[Lebowsky]

he'll pick judas
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_v4oTNEL4aC4/S_5mWzAjZAI/AAAAAAAAAFw/qiQ3o_29ntA/s1600/Judas_Hanging.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gospel_of_Judas

Is that a serious pick?

[boozehound]

no, just ****ing with him/you.

[Jasi]

Jailblazer can pick.

MasterDurant and raiderfan have one pending pick.

[Jailblazers7]

I select Haruki Murakami

http://www.theage.com.au/ffximage/2006/06/22/lone_wolf_narrowweb__300x350,0.jpg

Recently read Norwegian Wood because of all the hype he gets on ISH and I can't say I was dissapointed. I'm very excited to read Kafka on the Shore since that is his most well known novel.

Wiki quotes:


Murakami's fiction, often criticized by Japan's literary establishment, is humorous and surreal, and at the same time digresses on themes of alienation and loneliness.[27] Through his work, he was able to capture the spiritual emptiness of his generation and explore the negative effects of Japan's work-dominated mentality. His writing criticizes the decline in human values and a loss of connection among people in Japan's society.


He is considered an important figure in postmodern literature, and is one of the most notable Japanese artists since Akira Kurosawa. The Guardian praised him as "among the world's greatest living novelists" for his works and achievements.[2]

[Jasi]

Damn damn damn Jailblazers!

[Jailblazers7]

Damn damn damn Jailblazers!

:D

Consider it payback for your Steinbeck pick.

[Jasi]

:D

Consider it payback for your Steinbeck pick.

:cheers:

[MasterDurant24]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7c/Johnhersey.jpg

John Hersey was the journalist who wrote Hiroshima, an account of the aftermath of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, Japan. The story was judged the finest piece of journalism of the 20th century by a 36-member panel at New York University's journalism department. He also won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel A Bell for Adano, and he later became one of the Masters of a residential college at Yale. He taught writing to undergradutates for 18 years, and even donated his bulldog to become the new mascot of Yale.

[Jasi]

Lebowsky is up with back-to-back picks.

iamgine and raiderfan both have a pending pick.

[Lebowsky]

I select sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle

http://sololibrosblog.com/files/ConanDoyle.jpg

Wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Conan_Doyle):

Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle, DL (22 May 1859 – 7 July 1930) was a Scottish[1] physician and writer, most noted for his stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered a major innovation in the field of crime fiction, and for the adventures of Professor Challenger. He was a prolific writer whose other works include science fiction stories, historical novels, plays and romances, poetry, and non-fiction.

----------------------------------

The creator of arguably the most well-known character in universal literature. A master of detective stories and short stories in general, I've found his works to be very entertaining and addicting throughout the years. His historical novels and history books are also remarkable. Recommended works: the sign of four, the hound of the Baskervilles, the valley of fear, the lost world, the brown hand, the parasite.

[Lebowsky]

Good to see my asian pick is still available. I select Yasunari Kawabata

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1968/kawabata.jpg

Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yasunari_Kawabata#Selected_works)

Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成 Kawabata Yasunari?, 14 June 1899 – 16 April 1972) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

Kawabata left many of his stories apparently unfinished, sometimes to the annoyance of readers and reviewers, but this goes hand to hand with his aesthetics of art for art's sake, leaving outside any sentimentalism, or morality, that an ending would give to any book. This was done intentionally, as Kawabata felt that vignettes of incidents along the way were far more important than conclusions. He equated his form of writing with the traditional poetry of Japan, the haiku.
As the president of Japanese P.E.N. for many years after the war (1948–1965), Kawabata was a driving force behind the translation of Japanese literature into English and other Western languages.
In 1968 Kawabata became the first Japanese to receive the Nobel Prize for Literature "for his narrative mastery, which with great sensibility expresses the essence of the Japanese mind." In awarding the prize, the Nobel Committee cited three of his novels, Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital.
[edit]Notes
Yasunari Kawabata (川端 康成 Kawabata Yasunari?, 14 June 1899 – 16 April 1972) was a Japanese short story writer and novelist whose spare, lyrical, subtly-shaded prose works won him the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1968, the first Japanese author to receive the award. His works have enjoyed broad international appeal and are still widely read.

------------------------------

I'm no expert on japanese literature, but out of the handful of japanese writers I've read he's the best without a shadow of a doubt. His writing possesses that touch of melancholy and beauty which are often characteristic of japanese art. Recommended works: The master of Go, The old capital, Thousand cranes, The sound of the mountain.

[Jailblazers7]

On my phone at work but I select Tennessee Williams.

[Jasi]

So raiderfan is up again.

He also has one pending pick, like iamgine.

[Fatal9]

So raiderfan is up again.

He also has one pending pick, like iamgine.
Fuhqueque can go ahead and pick now. I'd rather not hold up the draft if someone hasn't even made their pending pick yet.

[Fuhqueue]

I'll take Fernando Pessoa. One of the greatest and most underrated writers and poets of the 20th century, exploring the expressive limits of literature with his dozens of writing personae.

http://bookofdisquiet.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/fernando-pessoa1.jpg

[lakers_forever]

I'll take Fernando Pessoa. One of the greatest and most underrated writers and poets of the 20th century, exploring the expressive limits of literature with his dozens of writing personae.

http://bookofdisquiet.files.wordpress.com/2009/11/fernando-pessoa1.jpg

Wonderful pick. There are still some great portuguese speaking (brazilian or portuguese) writers and poets around...

Autopsychography by Pessoa:

The poet is a faker
Who's so good at his act
He even fakes the pain
Of pain he feels in fact.

And those who read his words
Will feel in what he wrote
Neither of the pains he has
But just the one they don't.

And so around its track
This thing called the heart winds,
A little clockwork train
To entertain our minds.

[Jasi]

Very nice pick, I was actually undecided between him and Neruda for a 20th century "latin" author, and though I like Pessoa more, I thought Neruda was the bigger figure overall.

Can I pick since iamgine already has a pending pick?
I'm not going to pick any philosopher/thinker, so I don't think it'll hurt him.

[Fatal9]

he made his pending pick on the last page and it was his first missed pick I believe, so we have to wait. PM me the pick if you have to go to sleep.

[Jasi]

he made his pending pick on the last page and it was his first missed pick I believe, so we have to wait. PM me the pick if you have to go to sleep.

Uh sorry, you're right.

Pm coming

[Jailblazers7]

On my phone at work but I select Tennessee Williams.

Write up:

http://www.mannythemovieguy.com/images/tennessee_williams.jpg

Gotta love A Street Car Named Desire. He won a Pulitzer for it and it gets extra awesomeness for Brando's performance as Stanley Kowalski. He's up there with Beckett, Shakespeare, and another writer who hasn't been selected as my favorite playwrights.


Other notables include:

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (also won a Pulitzer)
The Glass Menagerie
Summer and Smoke

A quote about him:


The nature of his art was evident from the very first. You could walk into a performance of one of his plays and you would know instantly that it belonged to him. His characters were darts of light, flickering across the stage, surprising even themselves. His sister was a schizophrenic, his lover was a Sicilian navy man. He brought his tendrils of genius to wherever and whenever he was. He choked on cap from a bottle and perished in 1983. His short stories are surprisingly revealing, like a Rosetta Stone for the sheer madness of his plays. Love the one-acts.

[raiderfan19]

sorry, im back. Ill have both picks in a minute.

[raiderfan19]

Ill take Ayn Rand with my first pick.

[raiderfan19]

second pick is Niccol

[iamgine]

Saint Augustine

http://rlv.zcache.com/st_augustine_3_poster-p228648746486740604trma_400.jpg

[Fatal9]

Jasi picks Honore de Balzac via PM.

http://www.dressspace.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/balzac1.jpg

Timmy D is up.

[Timmy D for MVP]

I was flipping through the list and couldn't believe I forgot this guy:

Aristophanes
http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/65/Aristophanes_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_12788.png

was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.

Notable Works:

The Clouds
The Birds
Lysistrata
And my personal favorite The Frogs

[Fatal9]

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/jonathan-swift.jpg

Jonathan Swift

The voice of satire in English.

Some of his most notable work (novels and essays):

Gulliver's Travels
A Modest Proposal
A Tale of a Tub
The Battle of the Books
An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity
Drapier's Letters


boozehound is up.

[Jasi]

Jasi picks Honore de Balzac via PM.

http://www.dressspace.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/balzac1.jpg



Thanks.

Honor

[Jailblazers7]

This has been a really good draft. Props to everyone for building solid teams. Ill have to bookmark this thread as a future reading list.

[boozehound]

http://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/images/jonathan-swift.jpg

Jonathan Swift

The voice of satire in English.

Some of his most notable work (novels and essays):

Gulliver's Travels
A Modest Proposal
A Tale of a Tub
The Battle of the Books
An Argument Against Abolishing Christianity
Drapier's Letters


boozehound is up.
awesome. One of my favorites. ANyways, I gotta run to lab for a while. I will make my pick this afternoon, so feel free to skip me.

[Lebowsky]

I was flipping through the list and couldn't believe I forgot this guy:

Aristophanes
http://en.academic.ru/pictures/enwiki/65/Aristophanes_-_Project_Gutenberg_eText_12788.png

was a prolific and much acclaimed comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete. These, together with fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old Comedy, and they are in fact used to define the genre. Also known as the Father of Comedy and the Prince of Ancient Comedy, Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any other author.

Notable Works:

The Clouds
The Birds
Lysistrata
And my personal favorite The Frogs

Oh you've got to be kidding me...that was my next pick.

[Jasi]

If we skip booze, next up would be MasterDurant, who still has a pending pick... so Snoop Cat can pick, right?

Fatal?

[boozehound]

ok, not a lot of time, but I pick V.S. Naipaul, a indo-trinidadian writer and one of the finest writers of our time IMO.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/01/30/article-1132743-033F6E13000005DC-612_468x619.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V._S._Naipaul

My favorite book I have read of his is "A way in the world" which transcends the form of novel.

[Jasi]

^ Second name I never heard of in this draft. I'll check it out for sure.

EDIT: False. I've checked the whole list again and also two Asian names and John Hersey were unknown to me. I'll check them all out, like Jailblazers said this draft can be very educational.

[boozehound]

^ Second name I never heard of in this draft. I'll check it out for sure.

EDIT: False. I've checked the whole list again and also two Asian names and John Hersey were unknown to me. I'll check them all out, like Jailblazers said this draft can be very educational.
yeah, definitely check him out. A bend in the river is probably his most famous work. One of my top 10 living writers probably

[Fatal9]

Snoop, you're up (MD24 one pending pick).

[Snoop_Cat]

St. Benedict

Confucius

[Jasi]

MasterDurant is up again + one pending pick.

[boozehound]

MasterDurant is up again + one pending pick.
well, hes getting skipped. Two picks left is that right? OK, still no american authors on here and I guess Ill keep it that way for one more round.


With my pick I choose Booker Prize winning author, Ben Okri! And the crowd goes wild, stops, and starts to boo! well, you guys dont know talent when you see it, just like knick fans.
http://www.nndb.com/people/043/000102734/ben-okri-1-sized.jpg




This Nigerian author is perhaps the best modern author in the style of magical realism, though he himself does not identify as such. his thick descriptions of the everyday world create a visual backdrop for the metaphysical elements he weaves through his stories. his book the famished road, which is why I picked him, is an incredible tale that you can read at surface value or stop and dwell at the worldview presented by the main character. very honest depictions of life in a third world city from the perspective of an anamist (belief in spirits in everything, probably the oldest surviving form of religion).

[Lebowsky]

well, hes getting skipped. Two picks left is that right? OK, still no american authors on here and I guess Ill keep it that way for one more round.


With my pick I choose Booker Prize winning author, Ben Okri! And the crowd goes wild, stops, and starts to boo! well, you guys dont know talent when you see it, just like knick fans.
http://www.nndb.com/people/043/000102734/ben-okri-1-sized.jpg





This Nigerian author is perhaps the best modern author in the style of magical realism, though he himself does not identify as such. his thick descriptions of the everyday world create a visual backdrop for the metaphysical elements he weaves through his stories. his book the famished road, which is why I picked him, is an incredible tale that you can read at surface value or stop and dwell at the worldview presented by the main character. very honest depictions of life in a third world city from the perspective of an anamist (belief in spirits in everything, probably the oldest surviving form of religion).

First writer in the draft I had never heard of before. What language does he write in?

[boozehound]

First writer in the draft I had never heard of before. What language does he write in?
english. he's nigerian (and lived there much of his childhood, although he was born in england) but was educated in the UK. I would highly recommend the famished road, though I admit that I had trouble getting into it the first time I read it (shit, I was probably 14 though).

[Jasi]

So it's now Fatal's turn

[boozehound]

So it's now Fatal's turn
and MD still has 2 picks pending right?

[Jasi]

and MD still has 2 picks pending right?

Evangelicals could have objections, but that actually equals 1+1 :D

[heyhey]

I don't really understand how these drafts work. Do the picks of the posters get critiqued and graded in the end? Never really followed one of these draft threads before so I don't understand its methodology. Strong picks all around thus far.
skewed heavily towards older writers. And I am surprised by a few omissions in the earlier rounds.

This is a good thread to find authors you might not have known before like balzac or kawabata.

excellent thread

[boozehound]

I don't really understand how these drafts work. Do the picks of the posters get critiqued and graded in the end? Never really followed one of these draft threads before so I don't understand its methodology. Strong picks all around thus far.
skewed heavily towards older writers. And I am surprised by a few omissions in the earlier rounds.

This is a good thread to find authors you might not have known before like balzac or kawabata.

excellent thread
that is always the issue. who wins? well, we all do simply by participating. In some drafts, an outside forum member will write up evaluations of each "team", but in others its basically just pick by pick. whats the point? Not sure really

I was also surprised at the lack of new authors (though I have about 3 modern american authors I will pick between next round).

[boozehound]

I don't really understand how these drafts work. Do the picks of the posters get critiqued and graded in the end? Never really followed one of these draft threads before so I don't understand its methodology. Strong picks all around thus far.
skewed heavily towards older writers. And I am surprised by a few omissions in the earlier rounds.

This is a good thread to find authors you might not have known before like balzac or kawabata.

excellent thread
also, your username always makes me think "hey hey hey" in an overtly gay voice. no offense intended.

[Jasi]

I don't really understand how these drafts work. Do the picks of the posters get critiqued and graded in the end? Never really followed one of these draft threads before so I don't understand its methodology. Strong picks all around thus far.
skewed heavily towards older writers. And I am surprised by a few omissions in the earlier rounds.

This is a good thread to find authors you might not have known before like balzac or kawabata.

excellent thread

Well there can be a judging in the end, in some drafts you even decide how to do it in the first place.
I am in the process of evaluating the Cities draft for instance (after months!) and trying to do it with an actual rating/scoring structure. But one can also just give their opinion and that's it.
In this draft we didn't even talk about a possible judging.
(I personally think that a mutual vote could be useful in this case).

The most intriguing thing in these draft threads is the actual drafting process (for the participants) and the educational value you get (for all the readers).

[heyhey]

I was also surprised at the lack of new authors (though I have about 3 modern american authors I will pick between next round).

I think partly the reason is that several of the posters are drafting more historically important writers such as machiavelli, Adam Smith etc rather than focusing on authors from a purely literary acclaim.

I like the fact that your picks have included foreign candidates. The rememberence of things past is probably one of the finest fictional memoir I have read. It inspired Capote to try and write Answered Prayers which he never finished.

I have also read Camus but am unfamiliar with yerofeyev and bulgakov sadly.



The most intriguing thing in these draft threads is the actual drafting process (for the participants) and the educational value you get (for all the readers).

definitely. I was just curious whether judging was compulsory in these type of drafts. I really liked your pick of Neruda. It's amazing to me how the mid 20th century was such an incubator for great south american writers. I think the combination of political turmoil, the clash of social antiquity and modernity set the climate for inspirations and muses.

I am a little surprised you picked steinbeck so early tho lol. I never understood his appeal but to each his own. Can you point me to the page where you wrote about that pick? I liked to read your reasoning.

[Lebowsky]

I think partly the reason is that several of the posters are drafting more historically important writers such as machiavelli, Adam Smith etc rather than focusing on authors from a purely literary acclaim.

I like the fact that your picks have included foreign candidates. The rememberence of things past is probably one of the finest fictional memoir I have read. It inspired Capote to try and write Answered Prayers which he never finished.

I have also read Camus but am unfamiliar with yerofeyev and bulgakov sadly.



definitely. I was just curious whether judging was compulsory in these type of drafts. I really liked your pick of Neruda. It's amazing to me how the mid 20th century was such an incubator for great south american writers. I think the combination of political turmoil, the clash of social antiquity and modernity set the climate for inspirations and muses.

I am a little surprised you picked steinbeck so early tho lol. I never understood his appeal but to each his own. Can you point me to the page where you wrote about that pick? I liked to read your reasoning.

Well, keep in mind that many south american countries were among the world's wealthiest and most educated, and had a great potential in the early-to-first half of the 20th century. In my experience, even nowadays, in countries as ****ed up as Argentina or Colombia are, the average citizen is generally well educated (I don't necessarily mean from an academical standpoint) and reflexive.

[Jasi]

I am a little surprised you picked steinbeck so early tho lol. I never understood his appeal but to each his own. Can you point me to the page where you wrote about that pick? I liked to read your reasoning.

Like boozehound said, it's a matter of perception, I guess.
Before this draft, I was convinced that Steinbeck was the consensus top 20th century American writer for US readers. Now, I've learnt that it's probably Faulkner.

But from Europe (or at least from Italy - I don't know if Lebowsky or other European residents agree) Steinbeck is the obvious choice.
The Great Depression, the Highway 66, the exploitation of labour, the idea of an autonomous travel towards a "promised land"... that's a truly American story for us (I'm speaking of "Wrath", that's the only one I read from him :D).

This is the post where I picked him btw
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4912976&postcount=235

[Lebowsky]

Like boozehound said, it's a matter of perception, I guess.
Before this draft, I was convinced that Steinbeck was the consensus top 20th century American writer for US readers. Now, I've learnt that it's probably Faulkner.

But from Europe (or at least from Italy - I don't know if Lebowsky or other European residents agree) Steinbeck is the obvious choice.
The Great Depression, the Highway 66, the exploitation of labour, the idea of an autonomous travel towards a "promised land"... that's a truly American story for us (I'm speaking of "Wrath", that's the only one I read from him :D).

This is the post where I picked him btw
http://www.insidehoops.com/forum/showpost.php?p=4912976&postcount=235

Before this draft I probably would've said either Hemingway or Steinbeck, no doubt. Now speaking of Hemingway, I believe that, literary merits aside, he's not a well liked figure in the US. Can any of you americans confirm/refute that?

[Jailblazers7]

Before this draft I probably would've said either Hemingway or Steinbeck, no doubt. Now speaking of Hemingway, I believe that, literary merits aside, he's not a well liked figure in the US. Can any of you americans confirm/refute that?

I think its either a love/hate thing with Hemingway. I haven't met too many people that are inbetween.

[Fatal9]

I'm here, gonna pick in a few minutes.

Might be taking a French writer but with Balzac gone (who stood above the rest imo), it's difficult to decide. Jasi you have a favorite short story by him? I've read some of them, Gobseck's my favorite character/story (shows up repeatedly in many other texts too) but he's put together so many great short stories volume wise, I don't know which ones to read next.


Before this draft I probably would've said either Hemingway or Steinbeck, no doubt. Now speaking of Hemingway, I believe that, literary merits aside, he's not a well liked figure in the US. Can any of you americans confirm/refute that?
Most people either love or hate his prose like jailblazers said. Some like the simplicity of it, some think it lacks a certain poetic quality in the writing that most other great novelists had. He's hated by feminists a lot though, but that's okay, they read to reinforce their prejudices anyways.

[Jasi]

Might be taking a French writer but with Balzac gone (who stood above the rest imo), it's difficult to decide. Jasi you have a favorite short story by him? I've read some of them, Gobseck's my favorite character/story (shows up repeatedly in many other texts too) but he's put together so many great short stories volume wise, I don't know which ones to read next.


Tbh I only read a novel from him, probably the best one, Pere Goriot.

Btw I think there is a clear cut second best among French realists.

[MasterDurant24]

http://swindlemagazine.com/images/alan-moore.jpg

Alan Moore is, to me, easily the best comic book writer of all time. He wrote the Swamp Thing, Batman: A Killing Joke, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, and Miracleman.

http://www.glenninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Thomas-Jefferson.jpg

Our 3rd president wrote the Declaration of Independence, the document that our nation was built off of and is widely considered to be a great writer.

As you can see, I'm going for a big variety here.

[Timmy D for MVP]

http://swindlemagazine.com/images/alan-moore.jpg

Alan Moore is, to me, easily the best comic book writer of all time. He wrote the Swamp Thing, Batman: A Killing Joke, Watchmen, V for Vendetta, Leauge of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Whatever Happened to the Man of Tomorrow, and Miracleman.

http://www.glenninstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/Thomas-Jefferson.jpg

Our 3rd president wrote the Declaration of Independence, the document that our nation was built off of and is widely considered to be a great writer.

As you can see, I'm going for a big variety here.

Ahh son! I thought I was gonna be the crazy one and take a comic guy first. Well played sir. :cheers:

[Fatal9]

http://imagecache6.allposters.com/LRG/27/2741/KGRND00Z.jpg

Gustave Flaubert

Without Gustave Flaubert, there would have been no Proust in France, no Joyce in Ireland. Chekhov would not have been quite the Chekhov. So much for Flaubert's literary influence.
- Nabokov

His greatest work, Madame Bovary, is considered one of the greatest and most influential novels ever. Mixed both realism and romanticism in his work, which as contradictory as it sounds, gave his work a layer of originality not seen before him. I'll admit though, having only read Madame Bovary I had thought he was exclusively a realist writer (the setting of Bovary is very ordinary, the issues very domestic/trivial and the cynicism reminiscent of Balzac). He was more influential to that movement anyway I think. His influence, especially on 20th century writers was huge. The quote from Nabokov really sums it up, but he was also one of the greatest, if not the greatest, influences on Kafka and couple of others I can't mention. I think he has every category down. Very influential, critically admired and Madame Bovary is one of the greatest achievements in literature. Gives me a French writer which I didn't have on my "team" and someone from the realism movement, which I also didn't have.

Work:

Madame Bovary
The Temptation of Saint Anthony
Three Tales
Bouvard et Pecuchet
Sentimental Education
Salammbo

[Timmy D for MVP]

Oh shit it's me... my bad ya'll.

Alright gonna round out with two personal faves starting with:

Arthur C. Clarke
http://jedi.org/p4/slide/image/Arthur.C.Clarke.png

was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for the novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, written in parallel with the script for the eponymous film, co-written with film-director Stanley Kubrick; and as a host and commentator in the British television series Mysterious World. For many years, Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Arthur C. Clarke were known as the "Big Three" of science fiction

Notable Works:

2001: A Space Oddessy
Rendezvous with Rama
The Sentinel

[Jasi]

Sorry, I didn't notice it was my turn.

For my classical period pick, I choose the father of Greek tragedy, Aeschylus.

http://lnx.pksoft.it/pkakira/albums/userpics/10002/eschilo.jpg

I was quite surprised to see Sophocles and Euripides get picked before him, since they were his followers, and Aeschylus was the one who innovated the tragedy and brought it to its mature form, that Sophocles and Euripides would then apply.

The concept of "hybris" itself, around which the whole Greek tragedy would flourish, stems from his works... above all his first masterpiece, The Persians.

The idea of "trilogy" that is so common nowadays also derives from him.
The Oresteia is the only one of his many trilogies that came to us, and probably the most important tragedy in the history of literature.

[iamgine]

Sigmund Freud

http://pencilsatdawn.files.wordpress.com/2007/08/unconcscious-freud.jpg

[Jasi]

FU is up

[boozehound]

FU is up
is this the last round?

[Jasi]

is this the last round?

9th round finishing.
Both you and I have one pick left.

[Fuhqueue]

There are still many amazing unpicked writers from all eras that I have in my notepad file of possible selections. But in the interests of squad variation, I'll take a giant of comedic literature, PG Wodehouse.

http://theresaromain.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/pg-wodehouse.jpg

Pelham Grenville Wodehouse is most famous for the Jeeves and Wooster characters and stories, but spent a long career scribing a hefty library of whimsical and hilarious books. A genius of comedic phrasing, few have ever had as much fun with the English language. A worthy addition to a very flexible squad.

[Jasi]

There are still many amazing unpicked writers from all eras that I have in my notepad file of possible selections.

I use excel.


P.S. Fatal, will there be a Free Agency/Trade period when the draft ends?

[Jailblazers7]

Im just picking mainly off the top of my head. There are so many writers I want to take with my last 2 picks.

[Lebowsky]

Should we skip raiderfan19? He's been on the clock for a while now.

[Jasi]

Should we skip raiderfan19? He's been on the clock for a while now.

Technically he still has 30 minutes or so, but oh well

[Lebowsky]

Technically he still has 30 minutes or so, but oh well

Fair enough.

[Jasi]

No, my bad.
It's 8 hours for the first round, but 7 hours for the other rounds, so Jailblazers can pick now.

[Lebowsky]

No, my bad.
It's 8 hours for the first round, but 7 hours for the other rounds, so Jailblazers can pick now.

I have a feeling Jailblazers will steal my next pick anyway :oldlol:

[Fatal9]

I use excel.


P.S. Fatal, will there be a Free Agency/Trade period when the draft ends?
Do you guys really want it? I think that always makes drafts more complicated than they need to be. We could make an "all undrafted team" at the end to discuss some unselected writers though.

Was Flaubert the other French realist you were referring to btw? Has to be. I was actually debating between him and a short story writer (from about the same era) who I've read more of but his influence and acclaim were clearly below Flaubert.

[Jailblazers7]

I think I might end up taking 2 Americans with my final picks which isn't the greatest for diversity but oh well. I'm just going to go favorites at this point.

I select Philip Roth.

http://therumpus.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/roth1.jpg

My favorite current author (maybe favorite ever). His style, subject matter, character development, and emotional depth keep me fascinated with his novels. I don't think there is a word in the dictionary to describe my affection for his Pulitzer Prize winning novel American Pastoral.

[Dolphin]

The author of my fave book of all time (and regarded as a 20th cen. masterpiece) still hasn't been selected. Wonder if he will at all.

[Jasi]

Do you guys really want it? I think that always makes drafts more complicated than they need to be. We could make an "all undrafted team" at the end to discuss some unselected writers though.

Was Flaubert the other French realist you were referring to btw? Has to be. I was actually debating between him and a short story writer (from about the same era) who I've read more of but his influence and acclaim were clearly below Flaubert.

No I wouldn't want it either.
I asked just because I had the same idea, the all undrafted team.

And yes, it was him.

[Lebowsky]

Phew, that was kinda close. I select Philip K. Dick.

http://www.daemonsbooks.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/philipdick.jpg

Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick)

Philip Kindred Dick (December 16, 1928 – March 2, 1982) was an American novelist, short story writer, and essayist whose published work was almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments, and altered states. In his later works, Dick's thematic focus strongly reflected his personal interest in metaphysics and theology. He often drew upon his own life experiences and addressed the nature of drug abuse, paranoia and schizophrenia, and transcendental experiences in novels such as A Scanner Darkly and VALIS.[6]

In addition to 44 published novels,[10] Dick wrote approximately 121 short stories, most of which appeared in science fiction magazines.[11] Although Dick spent most of his career as a writer in near-poverty,[12] nine of his stories have been adapted into popular films since his death, including Blade Runner, Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly and Minority Report. In 2005, Time magazine named Ubik one of the one hundred greatest English-language novels published since 1923.[13] In 2007, Dick became the first science fiction writer to be included in The Library of America series.

-----------------------------------

Quite possibly my favorite 20th. century writer (I might have said that before in this thread, I tend to get carried away when it comes to literature :oldlol: ), so glad I've been able to pick him. "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" is the novel Blade Runner was based on, and is one of the most amazing books I've ever come across. Even if you're not familiar with his books, you've probably seen any of the many movies that have been made out of them, such as Minority report, A scanner darkly or Blade runner.

[Jailblazers7]

I considered Philip K. Dick for a few rounds now but I've kept passing him up for one reason or another. Good choice.

[heyhey]

Quite possibly my favorite 20th. century writer (I might have said that before in this thread, I tend to get carried away when it comes to literature :oldlol: ), so glad I've been able to pick him. "Do androids dream of electric sheep?" is the novel Blade Runner was based on, and is one of the most amazing books I've ever come across. Even if you're not familiar with his books, you've probably seen any of the many movies that have been made out of them, such as Minority report, A scanner darkly or Blade runner.

I'm sad that Dick was taken after Asimov. I feel like Asimov's stories are more embraced by hard science fiction fans but Dick's stories have so much more human element to them. Ubik was the first story I read by Dick and I personally think it's one of the most influential science fiction story of 20th century.

[Lebowsky]

I will need some time to decide my final pick, as I'm torn among a few.

[Lebowsky]

I'm sad that Dick was taken after Asimov. I feel like Asimov's stories are more accepted by hard science fiction fans but Dick's stories have so much more human element to them.

I totally agree. Do androids dream of electric sheep?, for instance, is full of beautiful reflections on the passing nature of time, human condition and identity that it trascends science fiction, the way Clarke or Asimov understood it.

[Lebowsky]

Damn, so many great authors left, just one more pick. Anyway, with my last pick I select Herodotus of Halicarnassus.

http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/nes263/student2007/ljp72/Pictures/herodotus.jpg

Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus#As_told_by_other_historians)

Herodotus (Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēr

[Jailblazers7]

Out on my phone, but I select CS Lewis wiith mmy final pick. My favorites of his are the Screwtape Letter and A Grief Observed.

[boozehound]

[QUOTE=Lebowsky]Damn, so many great authors left, just one more pick. Anyway, with my last pick I select Herodotus of Halicarnassus.

http://courses.cit.cornell.edu/nes263/student2007/ljp72/Pictures/herodotus.jpg

Wiki: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus#As_told_by_other_historians)

Herodotus (Greek: Ἡρόδοτος Hēr

[raiderfan19]

Out on my phone, but I select CS Lewis wiith mmy final pick. My favorites of his are the Screwtape Letter and A Grief Observed.
You are about 8 rounds late and my favorite of his is Mere Christianity.

edit-never mind, i thought someone took him when we discussed him earlier or i would have taken him several rounds ago

[Lebowsky]

while I still dont agree with picking authors based on historical import outside of the art of language, this is nonetheless a fabulous last round pick.

Aristophanes was my classic greek pick, but he was taken a while back. I almost picked his fellow historian [no name dropping] instead Herodotus too, based on personal preference. Others classics more worthy from a purely literary point of view were also considered, such as [no name dropping] or [no name dropping], but at the end of the day Herodotus' influence is huge and his work is the first use of prose ever recorded if I'm not mistaken. Style may not have been his strongest point, but it was highly regarded in the past nevertheless. It was hard as **** to decide a last pick :oldlol:

Props to everyone involved in the thread, either as a drafter or as a commenter. You guys know your literature and it's been a lot of fun. Let's see how the last few picks go.

[Jasi]

I think it's Jailblazers' pick in the last round now...?

[Jailblazers7]

I think it's Jailblazers' pick in the last round now...?

I selected CS Lewis somewhere above. I just didn't get to spruce it up with a pic and list of books because I haven't been near a computer.

[Jasi]

I selected CS Lewis somewhere above. I just didn't get to spruce it up with a pic and list of books because I haven't been near a computer.

Yup, sorry.
So who's up now?
Raiderfan?
He has also a pending pick right?

[sawyersauce]

I'm sad that Dick was taken after Asimov. I feel like Asimov's stories are more embraced by hard science fiction fans but Dick's stories have so much more human element to them. Ubik was the first story I read by Dick and I personally think it's one of the most influential science fiction story of 20th century.

Agreed. The Man in the High Castle is one of my favorites.

I'd describe Asimov as more scientific and Dick as more speculative, but Dick always had more poignant thematic content. Asimov had quite a detached style, I've read somewhere that his first published peice was a short-story written as a fictional chemistry report.

[raiderfan19]

Im here, i was actually here yesterday but didnt notice it was my turn. Woops. Ill have both picks in a second.

[raiderfan19]

With my first pick i select JK Rowling. I realize she may not be historically important but Harry Potter is the most popular book series of all time and the best selling books other than the Bible. With my second pick Ill take Jules Verne. IMO the best sci-fi writer ever.

[Fatal9]

Fuhqueque is up followed by:

10 5 iamgine
10 6 Jasi
10 7 Timmy D
10 8 fatal
10 9 boozehound
10 10 MasterDurant24
10 11 Snoop Cat

[Fatal9]

iamgine you're up. fuhq has a pick pending.

[Jasi]

I think I can go now, right?

With my last pick, I select David Grossman.

http://www.kcb.org.rs/Media/User/standard_633710505822883560.jpg

I am particularly satisfied with this pick, because:

- I hit Israel, Middle-East, Asia (that I lacked).

- I hit contemporaries (that I lacked).

- I love his writing. The Zigzag Kid is one of my favourite novels ever. He also wrote modern masterpieces such as The Book of Intimate Grammar, Be My Knife and Someone to Run With. I wonder what are they waiting to award him the Nobel prize.

- I also love his thought. His (quite balanced) positions on the Israel-Palestine issue are the most convincing to me.


Props to Fatal9 and everyone in this thread. :cheers:
I enjoyed it a lot and it enriched my read-list terrifically.

[Timmy D for MVP]

My final pick? Alright I knew I was gonna take this guy from the moment I joined this draft. Easily my favorite author.

The late, and yes great:

Michael Chrichton
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/archive/e/ef/20090613202048!MichaelCrichton.jpg

was an American author, producer, director, and screenwriter, best known for his work in the science fiction, medical fiction, and thriller genres. His books have sold over 150 million copies worldwide, and many have been adapted into films. In 1994, Crichton became the only creative artist ever to have works simultaneously charting at #1 in television, film, and book sales (with ER, Jurassic Park, and Disclosure, respectively)

Notable Works: Though most his work you'll recognize anyway I'd say the best of the best would be the fiction work such as

Sphere
Airframe
The Andromeda Strain
Prey
Timeline
The Great Train Robbery
And of course Jurassic Park

[Timmy D for MVP]

This has easily been the most fun I've had with these drafts. Props to Fatal for doing this and props to everyone for being on top of their games. I've saved this page and will get to some serious reading. Great stuff errbody. :cheers:

[Fuhqueue]

With its tardy last-round pick, Team Fuhqueue selects Umberto Eco to round off the roster.

http://img.listal.com/image/453990/600full-umberto-eco.jpg

An extremely distinguished contemporary writer to go with the classics both modern and ancient. Eco is polymath of postmodernism, accomplished in philosophy, literature and linguistics, and producing memorable novels and essay collections such as Foucault's Pendulum, The Name of the Rose, History of Beauty and On Ugliness.

[Lebowsky]

With its tardy last-round pick, Team Fuhqueue selects Umberto Eco to round off the roster.

http://img.listal.com/image/453990/600full-umberto-eco.jpg

An extremely distinguished contemporary writer to go with the classics both modern and ancient. Eco is polymath of postmodernism, accomplished in philosophy, literature and linguistics, and producing memorable novels and essay collections such as Foucault's Pendulum, The Name of the Rose, History of Beauty and On Ugliness.

One of my favorite contemporary writers, very nice pick.

[Fuhqueue]

Truly a very impressive guy. I already have several 20th-century writers onboard, but always intended to take a legit contemporary scribe. It got pushed back to the last round because so many legendary options were still (and are still) available.

In contemporary options I tried to think of my favourite currently-active authors whose work I reckon will endure (you never can really tell). Cycled through lots of names, but Eco got the nod because of the tremendous breadth of his writing

[Lebowsky]

Truly a very impressive guy. I already have several 20th-century writers onboard, but always intended to take a true contemporary scribe. It got pushed back to the last round because so many legendary options were still (and are still) available.

In contemporary options I tried to think of my favourite currently-active authors whose work I reckon will endure (you never can really tell). Cycled through lots of names, but Eco got the nod because of the tremendous breadth of his writing

I picking up The Name of The Rose for the first time as a teenager, not really knowing what to expect or what I would find, and finishing it in a couple of nearly-sleepless nights.

[Jasi]

I picking up The Name of The Rose for the first time as a teenager, not really knowing what to expect or what I would find, and finishing it in a couple of nearly-sleepless nights.

I must say I entirely skipped some of the densest pages full of descriptions :D
But yeah I like that novel, and Eco is a very smart intellectual.

[Joshumitsu]

http://img.listal.com/image/453990/600full-umberto-eco.jpg



Nice pick.

[Lebowsky]

I must say I entirely skipped some of the densest pages full of descriptions :D
But yeah I like that novel, and Eco is a very smart intellectual.

Then you must have loved Proust :oldlol: .

[Jasi]

Then you must have loved Proust :oldlol: .

Never read him, but tbh I'm hardly ever scared of dense pages. I love Dostoevskij's descriptions, for instance. It's just that Eco's ones were a bit redundant/unnecessary in some parts, imo.

[Lebowsky]

Never read him, but tbh I'm hardly ever scared of dense pages. I love Dostoevskij's descriptions, for instance. It's just that Eco's ones were a bit redundant/unnecessary in some parts, imo.

Yes, I see where you're coming from. Sometimes intellectuals like Eco take pleasure (and pride) in showing how much they know about the subject/era and how much they have researched for the book. It sometimes adds consistency and coherence, but more often than not it slows the narrative flow and, in some cases, those parts could have been skipped. Javier P

[Fatal9]

Sorry for the hold up, it's my pick. I'll pick in a few.

[Fatal9]

http://www.scott-fitzgerald.com/Design/Assets/images/f-scott-fitzgerald-200x325.jpg

F Scott Fitzgerald

Didn't have an American writer and he wrote what is considered by many the greatest American novel, The Great Gatsby. I was referring to Tender is the Night by Fitzgerald when I said Keats' Ode to the Nightingale contained the title of one of my favorite books btw.

Work:

Great Gatsby
Tender is the Night
This Side of Paradise
Tales of the Jazz Age (short stories)
The Beautiful and the Damned

He like most writers was a very neurotic guy, thought I'd share a funny story between him and Hemingway. They were good friends, and Zelda Fitzgerald (his wife) had told him that he wasn't "adequate" and couldn't make any woman happy. Scott had a nervous breakdown, went to Hemingway and asked him to examine his ***** in the bathroom of a restaurant to reassure him. They then went to the Louvre to compare Scott's size with that of the sculptures :oldlol:

Link to this story (http://thebestamericanpoetry.typepad.com/the_best_american_poetry/2009/03/hemingway-reassures-fitzgerald-about-his-*****.html)

[iamgine]

Karl Marx

http://www.tektoonics.com/etc/additional/time/ttmarx1.jpg

[Jasi]

boozehound has a pending pick and MasterDurant is up

three picks to go guys!

[MasterDurant24]

http://www.nndb.com/people/319/000022253/oneill.gif
Eugene O Neill was a fantastic playwright, winning 4 Pulitzer Prizes and a Nobel Prize for Literature throughout his career. His plays were among the first in American plays to use realism and to include speeches in American vernacular.

[Jasi]

Boozehound and Snoop_Cat both have pending picks.

the last two pick and we're done


Fatal, do you have something in mind as for the judging?

I suggest sawyersauce, ZeN, rufus and who else?

[vapid]

JK Rowling over Fitzgerald and Marx makes me nauseous.

[Jasi]

Yeah, Vapid also for judge :banana:

[Jailblazers7]

Yeah, Vapid also for judge :banana:

If vapid judges, I already get the auto win from the Murakami pick. :lol

[vapid]

Confused as to why Confucius was taken 7 rounds after Lao tzu, and why Du Fu's contemporary hasn't been taken yet.

[boozehound]

alright, sorry I let this lapse. So, since there is only 1 pick left besides me, I am going to violate all gentlemanly conduct and select 3 books from 3 different writers rather than a single author.


So, I am going to choose works from 3 of my favorite contemporary US authors.

The first is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. While the entire cannon of this genius is well worth reading, this detached tail of the macabre west based on a true story of the glanton gang, a group of thugish scalp hunters who terrorized the US mexican borderlands during 1949-50, sets the bar. Like all of his books, this loose narrative leads to questions of existence and spirituality. From the uncertain perspective used in narration to the sparse and wandering plot/ending, this book is truly a modern american classic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
Honorable mentions for The crossing and The road.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy
http://entropy2.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/blood-meridian.jpeg


My second book is Fierce invalids home from hot climates by Tom Robbins. This farcical tale centers on a jack CIA agent recently cursed in the jungles on the amazon and the resultant hi-jinks as he travels the globe in search of an answer. You will laugh your ass off.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fierce_Invalids_Home_from_Hot_Climates
Honorable mentions for Jitterbug perfume and Villa Incognito
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Robbins
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/3/31/Invalids_fierce.jpg/200px-Invalids_fierce.jpg
The third book in this pick is A Fool's Progress by Edward Abbey. Arguably the major influence for the development of Earth First and other environmental movements across the american west, this semi-autobiographical novel details his journey to return to his PA valley birthplace to die with his family. At times poignant and ridiculous, this novel is the masterwork of an author many consider to be the finest writer focused on the modern american west.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fool's_Progress
Honorable mentions to Good News, Black Sun, fire on the mountain, and the Monkeywrench Gang, as well as his works of non-fiction Desert Solitaire and the Confessions of a Barbarian, the most interesting journal I have read.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Abbey#Fiction
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51HZNoBPChL._BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-arrow-click,TopRight,35,-76_AA300_SH20_OU01_.jpg
Finally, a shout out to Larry McMurtry and Joseph Heller

[Lebowsky]

Confused as to why Confucius was taken 7 rounds after Lao tzu, and why Du Fu's contemporary hasn't been taken yet.

People have been making picks based on different personal criteria. Some of us focused on strictly literary merits, some others included other aspects in their decision making.

[Jailblazers7]

Confused as to why Confucius was taken 7 rounds after Lao tzu, and why Du Fu's contemporary hasn't been taken yet.

I considered taking the guy you are talking about for a few rounds but I'd rather pick someone like Philip Roth out of favoritism than a writer I haven't read anything of based on reputation.

[vapid]

People have been making picks based on different personal criteria. Some of us focused on strictly literary merits, some others included other aspects in their decision making.
If there is so much variation in criteria judging is going to be very difficult.

[Lebowsky]

If there is so much variation in criteria judging is going to be very difficult.

I guess so. I'm not sure Fatal9 had any judging in mind when he created the thread. It's been real fun anyway.

[Jasi]

If there is so much variation in criteria judging is going to be very difficult.

Tell me about that :D

[sawyersauce]

The first is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy. While the entire cannon of this genius is well worth reading, this detached tail of the macabre west based on a true story of the glanton gang, a group of thugish scalp hunters who terrorized the US mexican borderlands during 1949-50, sets the bar. Like all of his books, this loose narrative leads to questions of existence and spirituality. From the uncertain perspective used in narration to the sparse and wandering plot/ending, this book is truly a modern american classic.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Meridian
Honorable mentions for The crossing and The road.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cormac_McCarthy
http://entropy2.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/blood-meridian.jpeg


The last paragraph of Blood Meridian is one of my favorite endings to any novel...

"And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he'll never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling all at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."

That said, I've always thought Blood Meridian was a little overwritten. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but the prose are so rich and unrelentingly detailed, it's a very dense read. I actually prefer No Country to it, mostly for the more succinct style and the prominence of scene rather than summary. His whole body of work is great though, I think it's interesting to read his earlier stuff like Sutree and compare it to his later stuff like the Road, you can really see how his style has evolved.

[boozehound]

The last paragraph of Blood Meridian is one of my favorite endings to any novel...

"And they are dancing, the board floor slamming under the jackboots and the fiddlers grinning hideously over their canted pieces. Towering over them all is the judge and he is naked dancing, his small feet lively and quick and now in doubletime and bowing to the ladies, huge and pale and hairless, like an enormous infant. He never sleeps, he says. He says he'll never die. He bows to the fiddlers and sashays backwards and throws back his head and laughs deep in his throat and he is a great favorite, the judge. He wafts his hat and the lunar dome of his skull passes palely under the lamps and he swings about and takes possession of one of the fiddles and he pirouettes and makes a pass, two passes, dancing and fiddling all at once. His feet are light and nimble. He never sleeps. He says that he will never die. He dances in light and in shadow and he is a great favorite. He never sleeps, the judge. He is dancing, dancing. He says that he will never die."

That said, I've always thought Blood Meridian was a little overwritten. It's not necessarily a bad thing, but the prose are so rich and unrelentingly detailed, it's a very dense read. I actually prefer No Country to it, mostly for the more succinct style and the prominence of scene rather than summary. His whole body of work is great though, I think it's interesting to read his earlier stuff like Sutree and compare it to his later stuff like the Road, you can really see how his style has evolved.
yes, there certainly is some thick description that requires careful reading. As a student of the ethnohistory of the southwest, I can tell that he has done an incredible job synthesizing the proper descriptions and verbage for the time and presents it effortlessly (by this, I mean that he can write a single clear sentence about the appearance of a village in sonora that has a multitude of historically relevant pieces of info embedded in it, without boring you or even necc. making you aware of it). Still,a very dense prose style.


I have to admit, I still havent read sutree (my neighbors favorite of his). Pretty sure I have read everything else. I still love the crossing (2nd book of the border trilogy).

[Snoop_Cat]

With the last pick of the 2010 All-Time Writers Draft, I take the *greatest* children's writer of all time:



DR. SEUSS

[sawyersauce]

Pretty outstanding draft overall.
A few writers I was surprised didn't go, most prominently Lewis Carroll, but with the subjective standards that's somewhat arbitrary.

[vapid]

Just going to throw out some names:

Amartya Sen
Li Bai
Jean-Paul Sartre
Sun Tzu
Pliny the Elder
Benjamin Graham
George Bernard Shaw
Bertrand Russell

[heyhey]

Pretty outstanding draft overall.
A few writers I was surprised didn't go, most prominently Lewis Carroll, but with the subjective standards that's somewhat arbitrary.

yea this was awesome thread. I would rep Fatal but it would be an act of futility.:oldlol:

Some authors whose absence surprised me was, Christopher Marlowe, Truman Capote, Charles Bukowski, richard yates, vonnegut, arthur miller

and to lesser extent Heller and Borroughs.

Many more historical authors were taken than what I was expecting. On the philosophers side I would added Foucault and Sartre

Kazuo Ishiguro and david mitchell also gets a nod from me

[Lebowsky]

More notable undrafted writers Nikolai G

[Jasi]

[QUOTE=Lebowsky]More notable undrafted writers Nikolai G

[Jasi]

An All-Russian team would be awesome

Dostoevskij
Tolstoj
Pushkin
Chekhov
Gogol
Turgenev
Majakovskij
Cvetaeva
Bulgakov
Pasternak

[Joshumitsu]

No one said Thomas Pynchon? Here's your quote. Thomas Pynchon loved this thread...almost as much as he loves cameras.

Jk if anyone catches the reference.

But there were still some decent but very influential writers like Rudyard Kipling, David Foster Wallace, Ezra Pound, Jack Kerouac, Ginsberg, Christopher Marlowe, Dave Eggers, Kurt Vonnegut, Hunter S. Thompson, JD Salinger, Emily Dickinson, James Fenimore Cooper, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Thoreau, Jean-Paul Sartre, Kierkegaard, William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, Hegel, Bertrand Russel, Garcia Lorca, George Bernad Shaw, Harold Pinter, Orhan Pamuk, and Toni Morrison if someone wanted to diversify their list.


You can even include....BOB DYLAN for his literary influence on music.

[Jasi]

^ Yeah I had thought about a songwriter too (I'd have picked Leonard Cohen) but in the end I do think they're one level below.

[Joshumitsu]

^ Yeah I had thought about a songwriter too (I'd have picked Leonard Cohen) but in the end I do think they're one level below.

Yeah, I agree. Although Leonard Cohen did write Canadian literature...The Beautiful Losers is well-known and regarded as a gem in Canadian literature.

Yeah, but both Dylan and Cohen would definitely be picked if this thread were more focused on the combination of poetry and songwriting.

Tom Waits, would fit in too.

[Jasi]

Yeah, I agree. Although Leonard Cohen did write Canadian literature...The Beautiful Losers is well-known and regarded as a gem in Canadian literature.

Yeah, but both Dylan and Cohen would definitely be picked if this thread were more focused on the combination of poetry and songwriting.

Tom Waits, would fit in too.

<---------

:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:

[Fatal9]

Ovid...

I was sure he would have been gone right when I picked Virgil but he's not even on the undrafted teams :eek:

I was going to take Kipling but I already had plenty of English writers. John Donne too, I was debating between him or Keats. Thomas Hardy, George Eliot and Trollope were other English novelists I really liked but didn't want to stack up on Victorian English novelists when I had Dickens. Guy de Maupassant was the one I was debating with between Flaubert but Flaubert was more influential clearly (though I've read more of Maupassant, didn't consider Baudelaire because I thought I had enough poets). I really hate Zola, remember being forced to read Ladies' Paradise and really disliking it, especially after having read Balzac's work right before him, so he wasn't a consideration for my French pick. Almost took Coetzee with my last pick.

[Jasi]

I think that Latin authors (except Virgil) are nothing compared to Greek ones.
Maybe Ovid and Catullus, but before them I'd pick more than 10 Greek poets.

[Jasi]

Other undrafted names that I've considered...

Hanif Kureishi
Nazim Hikmet
Kalidasa
Amos Oz
Naguib Mahfouz

[Jailblazers7]

I actually considered taking Cohen too lol.

Writers I considered but didn't have enough picks for:
Emily Dickinson
William Blake
Frank O'Hara
ee cummings
Li Bai
Ray Bradbury
JD Salinger
George Bernard Shaw (it was between him and Tennessee Williams)
Ezra Pound
Toni Morrison

[Jasi]

I will take this chance to ask you guys how well known the following Italian writers are to you:

Eugenio Montale
Giacomo Leopardi
Luigi Pirandello
Giovanni Verga
Salvatore Quasimodo
Giuseppe Ungaretti
Italo Calvino
Alessandro Manzoni
Ugo Foscolo

I didn't pick any of them because I feared their resonance was too local, but soem of them are among my favourites.

You can rate them along a "never heard of" - "i think i heard this name" - "are you joking? of course i know him" scale :D

[Jailblazers7]

I will take this chance to ask you guys how well known the following Italian writers are to you:

Eugenio Montale
Giacomo Leopardi
Luigi Pirandello
Giovanni Verga
Salvatore Quasimodo
Giuseppe Ungaretti
Italo Calvino

I didn't pick any of them because I feared their resonance was too local, but soem of them are among my favourites.

I've heard of Quasimodo and Verga but I don't think I've read anything by them. Ill have to check out some of those names. What would be your highest recommendation?

[Jasi]

I've heard of Quasimodo and Verga but I don't think I've read anything by them. Ill have to check out some of those names. What would be your highest recommendation?

My highest recommendation is Montale, a '900 poet, but because he is a poet, your appreciation of his works may depend heavily on the translation.

Italo Calvino on the other hand wrote novels and short stories and especially his "The Invisible Cities" is very visionary and profound. It ranks in my top 5 works of all times. I suggest it to everyone, if you can find a version in your language.

EDIT It exists apparently http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invisible_Cities

And here are a few excerpts, you can read them to get an idea.
http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/00/pwillen1/lit/citysum.htm

[iamgine]

Most notable undrafted: R.L. Stine

[Lebowsky]

I will take this chance to ask you guys how well known the following Italian writers are to you:

Eugenio Montale
Giacomo Leopardi
Luigi Pirandello
Giovanni Verga
Salvatore Quasimodo
Giuseppe Ungaretti
Italo Calvino
Alessandro Manzoni
Ugo Foscolo

I didn't pick any of them because I feared their resonance was too local, but soem of them are among my favourites.

You can rate them along a "never heard of" - "i think i heard this name" - "are you joking? of course i know him" scale :D

I know Calvino (il visconte di mezzato ftw), Montale and Leopardi, and heard of Pirandello and Manzoni. Giovanni Boccaccio and Petrarca went undrafted too btw.

[boozehound]

Yeah, I agree. Although Leonard Cohen did write Canadian literature...The Beautiful Losers is well-known and regarded as a gem in Canadian literature.

Yeah, but both Dylan and Cohen would definitely be picked if this thread were more focused on the combination of poetry and songwriting.

Tom Waits, would fit in too.
uhm, townes van zandt anyone? Best songwriter/poet of the last century IMO