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I'm interested in this list from someone who is this aggressive in a post without having actually read any posts before he made it
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Jan 25, 2024 23:49
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Shirley Jackson Jose Saramago Nikos Kazantzakis Mary Renault Gore Vidal Italo Calvino Kurt Vonnegut Hubert Selby Jr Phillip K Dick Umberto Eco Ursula K. Le Guin Vladimir Nabokov Laszlo Krasznahorkai Stanislaw Lem Alright that's just 14 but I left off people like Pynchon or Kundera or Delillo or Asimov or Cormac or Robert Graves or Graham Greene or Steinbeck. There's debate to be had here as this is all subjective but this is just going off the top and I missed plenty of people (and just didnt include a lot of less prolific writers with a grander mastery over storytelling and prose). I love the guy but at LEAST don't confuse his prejudices as just the effects of being provocative. I don't even think he's trying to be provocative is my point. Great short story and novella writer imo, his strength is in short form. Obviously if we're talking just horror the list completely shrinks. Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 23:59 on Jan 25, 2024 |
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Jan 25, 2024 23:57
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I suspect King will one day make the "Ivory Tower" level "American Lit. canon" well after this century (and we're all dead). Maybe a little quicker now that Harold Bloom is dead, but still not in my lifetime. What the academy will say about him, I have no idea, but I'd still put money on him being in official reading lists over a lot of others in the last fifty years. Maybe not Tom Calncy but definitely over Koontz, possibly even Grisham.
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Jan 25, 2024 23:59
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a few of those people are okay i guess. Hubert Selby is aggressively mid. Vonnegut is kinda overrated. Laszlo Krasznahorkai needs to learn what paragraph breaks are.
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Jan 25, 2024 23:59
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Uncle Boogeyman posted:a few of those people are okay i guess. Hubert Selby is aggressively mid. I just think King could go either way. He might be remembered in 150 years or he might just be one of those contemporary popular writers who is mostly forgotten, and I very much respect him as a writer
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Jan 26, 2024 00:00
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That's definitely a list I'd see out of a freshman lit college student that wants to sound smart
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Jan 26, 2024 00:01
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Doltos posted:That's definitely a list I'd see out of a freshman lit college student that wants to sound smart
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Jan 26, 2024 00:02
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Just like it's a weird tact for attacking an author for being prolific and having their work generally enjoyed?
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Jan 26, 2024 00:04
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Doltos posted:Just like it's a weird tact for attacking an author for being prolific and having their work generally enjoyed?
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Jan 26, 2024 00:05
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Punkin Spunkin posted:I guess if you're going by "Most adapted into movies or most culturally relevant in the last 50 years". I love the guy but calling him one of the greatest writers of the 20th century is insane when his idol SJ blows him out of the water. He's prolific and I love him but I could name 15 better 20th century writers just off the top of my head.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:05
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Punkin Spunkin posted:Great short story and novella writer imo, his strength is in short form. Obviously if we're talking just horror the list completely shrinks. I'd also put his non-fiction - Danse Macabre and On Writing - up there. Yeah, they may not hit the levels of lit crit theorists or a practical book like The Poet's Companion, but they're solid, accessible reads. Kind of like how all Poe's attention is on his stories, but not on his Shakespeare crit.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:05
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That's purely a response to calling him one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. I think his body of work is fantastic, and sure if you're talking about him among many many others then that's true. Still waiting to hear who your favorite writers of the 20th century are lol
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Jan 26, 2024 00:06
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I'd consider an author who makes works that people actually want to read a great writer. I'm sorry but if you're that guy who's quoting Baltasar and Blimunda when people are talking about Cujo you're going to come off as a bit of an elitist
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Jan 26, 2024 00:07
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Naked Man Punch posted:I'd also put his non-fiction - Danse Macabre and On Writing - up there. Yeah, they may not hit the levels of lit crit theorists or a practical book like The Poet's Companion, but they're solid, accessible reads. On Writing absolutely slaps
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Jan 26, 2024 00:07
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His nonfiction and short form are fantastic and I definitely stand by some of his novels too. I think what I admire about him most is how much he admires Shirley Jackson and that comes out most in terms of how much range he has in his short stories.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:09
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Doltos posted:I'd consider an author who makes works that people actually want to read a great writer. I'm sorry but if you're that guy who's quoting Baltasar and Blimunda when people are talking about Cujo you're going to come off as a bit of an elitist  Also did people like Knuckleball? Sorry for the derail.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:10
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Punkin Spunkin posted:??? Not what I was doing lol. I like Stephen King, I just don't think he's trying to be provocative. He's just a stupid boomer. Does this imply that there’s such a thing as a smart boomer
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Jan 26, 2024 00:10
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It implies that he thinks King is a prejudiced boomer for writing a child orgy but puts Nabokov of all people on his list
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Jan 26, 2024 00:11
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Doltos posted:It implies that he thinks King is a prejudiced boomer for writing a child orgy but puts Nabokov of all people on his list Still waiting to hear who your favorite 20th century writers are since you had that tedious little dig on mine...
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Jan 26, 2024 00:12
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Punkin Spunkin posted:Obviously a lot of male 20th century writers have incredibly hosed up content but the question is, all things equal when it comes to incredibly hosed up poo poo (and I think King's collective grossness adds up to at least one Lolita) what do you think about their prose. Prose is a crutch word that people use when the story sucks but the writer has access to a thesaurus. My list of 20th century writers is a lot of sci fi and horror because that's what I enjoy. I'm not trying to compare King to Ernest Hemingway on a technical level, but if we're talking about great authors you kind of do have to take into account how much people actually want to read their books. I think King is fine at writing something that's compelling and he obviously has a grasp on the English language. If we're being honest I find a lot of Faulkner, Steinbeck, and Vidal completely tedious to get through. I'd much rather read a Stephen King story over any of them.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:15
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Just list anybody you like lol instead of projecting your intellectual insecurities on my list. Starting to think your (relative) comfort with King's absolutely dehumanizing depictions of people of color might have to do with how easily you burn under the sun.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:17
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Oooookay then
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Jan 26, 2024 00:18
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Arnold Lobel is my favorite 20th century writer
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Jan 26, 2024 00:18
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Also cmon Gore Vidal is super readable.Doltos posted:Oooookay then Sorry for being uppity and craaaaaazy (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST) Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 00:20 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 00:18
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Doltos posted:King and old people in general dismiss a lot of things that are obviously gross and hosed up because sexual assault was a cultural norm for a long time. Same with his racist tendencies when he writes black people. I had to put down Dark Tower because the non stop honkeh mahfuckers got really annoying and bad. I don't doubt that he's kinda hosed up after the It scene, though. Punkin Spunkin posted:White Guy astonished that whiteness has any role in the perception of culture in the white supremacist state he lives in. You're a piece of poo poo (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Jan 26, 2024 00:20
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Jhonen Vasquez is the greatest writer of all time
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Jan 26, 2024 00:21
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Doltos posted:You're a piece of poo poo
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Jan 26, 2024 00:22
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Punkin Spunkin posted:Just list anybody you like lol instead of projecting your intellectual insecurities on my list. Starting to think your (relative) comfort with King's absolutely dehumanizing depictions of people of color might have to do with how easily you burn under the sun. you are making some interesting and great posts, and your list of terrific 20th century writers is undeniably a good list, but it would all go down a shitload smoother if you didn't make these weird pass-agg smears along the way phillip k dick particularly is an interesting comparison to King, given how many of his stories have been adapted into visual media. that said, while King's characters are mostly just big broad cartoon stereotypes, i'd say Dick tends to write his characters as vehicles for ideas
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Jan 26, 2024 00:25
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alf_pogs posted:you are making some interesting and great posts, and your list of terrific 20th century writers is undeniably a good list, but it would all go down a shitload smoother if you didn't make these weird pass-agg smears along the way
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Jan 26, 2024 00:26
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Philip K. Dick, Asimov, Herbert, Bradbury, Le Guin, Cixin, Dan Simmons, and other Sci Fi authors are pretty great at writing the character first and sculpting their ideas around it. If we're looking at horror though I feel like a lot of authors go after the story over the character. Shirley Jackson being one of them. I think it's just the nature of the genre that authors tend to explore the idea of the story since it's more subjective of what scares people.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:28
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Doltos posted:Philip K. Dick, Asimov, Herbert, Bradbury, Le Guin, Cixin, Dan Simmons, and other Sci Fi authors are pretty great at writing the character first and sculpting their ideas around it. If we're looking at horror though I feel like a lot of authors go after the story over the character. Shirley Jackson being one of them. I think it's just the nature of the genre that authors tend to explore the idea of the story since it's more subjective of what scares people. Jk, those are some great writers. Def a couple I forgot.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:29
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Punkin Spunkin posted:I'm used to being the non white person on a mostly white internet forum who's seen as inexplicably aggressive or insane lol. Just wait until I bring up 300. The problem is no one excused King's racism or praised him for it. You came in guns blazing without even reading two pages of people shooting down King because of it. When I told you your list is someone trying to sound smart you attacked me with some pretty serious poo poo to say. You are inexplicably aggressive.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:29
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Doltos posted:The problem is no one excused King's racism or praised him for it. You came in guns blazing without even reading two pages of people shooting down King because of it. When I told you your list is someone trying to sound smart you attacked me with some pretty serious poo poo to say. You are inexplicably aggressive.  (talk about true horror this picture feels like Midsommar)
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Jan 26, 2024 00:31
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I had no idea Stephen King had such a large family
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Jan 26, 2024 00:34
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the first time I read It, that scene scared and upset me on a true gut level, and it made sense in the context of the book. It was like the metaphysical version of body horror, these poor loving kids being unnaturally pushed through this insane, nightmarish act, and having to accept it because they're being forced by gigantic forces they can barely understand. Something about how they're basically being mangled by destiny is incredibly upsetting and King does a great job of getting inside their heads when it happens. In retrospect it's sort of insane and there has to have been a less ridiculous or sleazy way to get that same point across, but it also goes hand in hand with King's ability to involve the reader in situations that could easily come across as silly or absurd, but he's able to imbue with intense character insight in a way that makes them feel vivid and nightmarish. I would put him on the same level as Dickens. Also anyone who likes King should read Peyton Place. He's mentioned it as a direct influence on Salem's Lot, but it's filled with what seem like pretty clear kernels for a bunch of his other books.
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Jan 26, 2024 00:35
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ruddiger posted:I had no idea Stephen King had such a large family That's a fair enough definition of a good writer too vvvv he's definitely someone I'd call a good writer Punkin Spunkin fucked around with this message at 01:26 on Jan 26, 2024 |
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Jan 26, 2024 00:35
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Stephen King has gotten more people to read than anybody on any list of "good" authors. And that makes him a great author.
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Jan 26, 2024 01:24
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I like Stephen King because he writes about scary monsters
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Jan 26, 2024 02:46
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Can those two get their own thread to ruin e.g https://youtu.be/mQLf4DrN0LI?si=exxqlHlZIhtcYDrm Anyway, how would Stephen King rank the Friday the 13th series? Is he a Jason X man? Does he take the Carrie rip-off character as a compliment or is he mad about it?
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Jan 26, 2024 02:49
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I'm convinced, reading is terrible
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Jan 26, 2024 02:53
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