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Turfan Fragment
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« Reply #45 on: 04:42:11, 24-04-2008 » |
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For Children's books I highly recommend Donald Barthelme's The Slightly Irregular Fire Engine, or the Hithering Thithering Djinn -- wherein children are amused, adults are bemused, and none of it makes any sense. Also by Barthelme are several strong novels, plus a beautiful little book called Sam's Bar, with drawings by Seymour Chwast. I can't find an image of the book cover, unfortunately, so here's another picture by Chwast:  Hmmm. must read that article sometime. Hey! I found a peanut! Oooh, my knee itches. What time is it? You smell funny. |
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prawn
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« Reply #46 on: 10:45:30, 24-04-2008 » |
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Also, would you add Mein Kampf to such a list?
Interesting - I'm not sure that I would, on the grounds that things other than the book influenced Hitler's rise to power. But its importance to understanding the motivation for what happened in Germany is beyond doubt. Depends if your list is about the most influential books, in which case it has some sort of claim, or the quality of the writing, in which case it has zero claim. I wouldn't rank great works against each other. |
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pim_derks
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« Reply #47 on: 10:49:57, 24-04-2008 » |
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"Have you ever read Mein Kampf? It's really the most honest book any politician has ever written. He did everything he said he was going to do."
W.H. Auden
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"People hate anything well made. It gives them a guilty conscience." John Betjeman
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #48 on: 10:50:40, 24-04-2008 » |
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I wouldn't rank great works against each other. So - in that case - what enables you to say which works are great and which not? There must at some point be some absolute standard of comparison. |
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richard barrett
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« Reply #49 on: 10:55:34, 24-04-2008 » |
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"Have you ever read Mein Kampf? It's really the most honest book any politician has ever written. He did everything he said he was going to do."
W.H. Auden
Indeed, Pim. The thing is that as a book it wasn't that influential because, though large numbers of people owned a copy, very few had actually read it. There must at some point be some absolute standard of comparison.
Quite. What were the absolute standards which inspired member Grew's inclusion of the Spartacus Guide (useful and attractive volume though it may be) as against say anything by Shakespeare, I wonder? |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #51 on: 12:14:27, 24-04-2008 » |
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Quite. What were the absolute standards which inspired member Grew's inclusion of the Spartacus Guide (useful and attractive volume though it may be) as against say anything by Shakespeare, I wonder?
Geographical accuracy. When planning a tour of the beach clubs on the coast of Illyria, or heading back from the saunas of Tunis to the massage parlours of Milan, putting your faith in big Will's sense of direction can prove a disaster. At least with Mr Stamford to hand, you know where your towel is. |
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« Last Edit: 12:28:39, 24-04-2008 by George Garnett »
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richard barrett
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« Reply #52 on: 12:27:51, 24-04-2008 » |
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putting your faith in big Will's sense of direction can prove a disaster.
Is it not so often the case on the beach that Big Will develops a wayward mind of his own? |
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George Garnett
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« Reply #53 on: 12:29:25, 24-04-2008 » |
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This is man's tragedy, Richard. The Achilles' Heel of the soul.
Oh Lordy, I've just realised that we've got to make room on the list for Phoebe and Selby Whittingham: Teddy Bear Coalman. Hmm, difficult. I can see this ending up as an unseemly tussle between Teddy Bear Coalman and Simone de Beauvoir.
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« Last Edit: 13:00:23, 24-04-2008 by George Garnett »
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Morticia
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« Reply #54 on: 13:00:50, 24-04-2008 » |
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Oh Lordy, I've just realised that we've got to make room on the list for Phoebe and Selby Whittingham: Teddy Bear Coalman. Hmm, difficult. I'm afraid Simone de Beauvoir may find herself rudely nudged out on to the floor, yet again.
George, haven't you forgotten someone ...?  Right, As you were. Back to the serious business  |
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ahh
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« Reply #55 on: 13:10:55, 24-04-2008 » |
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Can't remember this stout fellow from the Spartacus Guide, must be in the Finnish beach section. |
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insert favoured witticism here
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Ron Dough
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« Reply #56 on: 13:40:29, 24-04-2008 » |
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Would that, then, explain the derivation of the word 'trolling'?
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prawn
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« Reply #57 on: 14:08:28, 24-04-2008 » |
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I wouldn't rank great works against each other. So - in that case - what enables you to say which works are great and which not? There must at some point be some absolute standard of comparison. I think that standard emerges over time, Sydney, rather than by putting one Top 20 alongside another. Has a published or unpublished list ever become a definitive ranking device? |
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MabelJane
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« Reply #58 on: 14:28:18, 24-04-2008 » |
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I think I want to amend my list and add 'Tootles the Taxi', its the only book I felt passionately enough about to steal. I was about 3 1/2 years old at the time and the guilt has remained, most earnestly, to this day.
At last! One I know well!  I quite understand you coveting such a literary masterpiece...was your theft discovered?  My favourite character was (still is!) Stumbles the Steamroller - sadly, he was omitted from the 1984 revised edition.  What! Stumbles was purged. This outrageous act of censorship clearly exemplifies the false freedoms we so precariously cling to in modern democracy. Perhaps he is replaced by Smuggy the (congestion charge free) Hybrid. I was never caught, but have lived a life of a desparate fugitive, moving from town to town, using Maurice the motor one week, Minnie the milk-float the next, then Colin the cattle truck, unable to ever settle down. And I don't trust that Flashy the fire engine either, I suspect he's been influenced by the firemen in Fahrenheit 451, one day when my back's turned he'll get busy with his match book, and ding his bell while he's doing it. It's Cuthbert the cattle-truck and Freddy the fire-engine in the revised edition copy I have in front of me here! (I can't find my older one - it's hiding on a bookshelf somewhere.)  Mabel (the motor coach!) |
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Merely corroborative detail, intended to give artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative.
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Sydney Grew
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« Reply #59 on: 14:45:27, 24-04-2008 » |
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We propose little by little to display in the "Pick a Page" thread a carefully selected page or so from each of the twenty first-rate books in our own list. This we have already done in the case of the first one, Adam's Vitality of Platonism, and interested Members will find it here. Since we do not currently possess a copy of Proust it would be marvellously convenient were another member to post a page therefrom; and of course pages from any or all of members' own favourites will continue to provide value and entertainment. |
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