Literature

[Fbuh]

So, fellow Escapists, let's have a literary discussion. I'm not talkin' your in between meals snack type genre fiction, but real literary achievements. I figure that among all the inanity there needs to be at least one intelligent conversation.

So, what's your favorite piece of literature? Try to stick with classics, and these can include modern breaks such as the Dune series by Frank Herbert or Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. Okay. I'll go first.

Personally, I really enjoy humorous types of literature the most, such as things like the Canterbury Tales or Mark Twain. However, I really enjoy a good bit of fantasy, so Lord of the Rings is up there, too. So that's what I like. So in regards to an actual discussion?

Let's see. . . I really think that LOTR is a major building block of modern fantasy as it is today. Just about every aspect of fantasty literature uses components from Tolkein's work. Elves, dwarves, goblins, magic, etc., etc. all make their way in there in some way or another. Without something like the Lord of the Rings, fantasy literature, and indeed video games, would be drastically different. Anybody care to voice their opinion? It is a discussion after all.

 

[FranzTyphid]

Of mice and men is a very good book everytime i read it i get a little emotional at the end

PS:I like your avatar alot

 

[Lullabye]

The Dune series was okay, but a little to "pro-protagonist" if you catch my feel. plus the later books done by the authors family were less intense and more dramatic than I could handle.
I really enjoyed the Ender's Game series, it was done very very well in my opinion and remains my favorite book series.
Though EG is my favorite series, my favorite genre is Victorian romance.....I know, odd. Not only romance, but anything that takes place during that time period, it simply dazzles me, and makes me think of a better time, when manners were a necessity and the English language was otherwise untouched by the idiots of the internet.
I enjoy a it of fantasy to, so authors like Jonathan Stroud catch my fancy. Perhaps my second favorite read is Mr.Norrel and Jonathan Strange by said author. Although long and not quite exciting, it's melancholy feel reflects the nature of the story that unfolds within it's print, making the characters that much more relatable to such an apathetic individual as myself.

 

[SturmDolch]

I love me some Lord of the Rings, including the Hobbit. I haven't read the Silmarillion but it's on my shelf waiting for me.

I hate Shakespeare right now because I have to write a bloody essay on him, making this probably the 8th essay I've had to write on that man. I swear, his works get overanalyzed so damn much. Every single consonant needs to be a symbol for someone being gay or for society. I doubt he really wanted to convey half the messages people say he did. Reminds me of a song that goes a little like, "Coo coo ca-choo, I am the Walrus".

 

[Regiment]

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is probably my favorite piece of upbeat literature. I love Sherlock Holmes stories and anything by Poe, though.

I hate Shakespeare right now because I have to write a bloody essay on him, making this probably the 8th essay I've had to write on that man. I swear, his works get overanalyzed so damn much. Every single consonant needs to be a symbol for someone being gay or for society. I doubt he really wanted to convey half the messages people say he did.

That's how I felt when I read the Oedipus trilogy. I've always wondered why people can't understand that famous authors may have written things because they liked to, or to entertain (Oedipus was most likely written for a festival competition), or to get paid (Shakespeare). Sometimes a story is just a story.

 

[sailor_960]

I enjoy the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells. All of you who talk about science fiction and fantasy have these guys to thank for that.

 

[dududf]

Well... I read the Nights dawn trilogy in a couple of days... so that's about 3600 pages or so...

Damn Peter Hamilton did a good job on it...

 

[DuplicateValue]

I've read a lot of Tolkien's work, and I adore it all. It's just got so much history and lore behind it, it's got more depth than anything I've ever read.

Other than that, I haven't really read any noteworthy "classics".
Though I did recently pick up something by Edgar Allan Poe, so that should be interesting.

 

[ribonuge]

I have been reading On the Road by Jack Kerouac. It's one of the pioneering novels which started the Beat generation. I just have to write out the blurb.

Spoiler

On the Road swings to the rhythms of 1950's underground America, jazz, sex, generosity, chill dawns and drugs, with Sal Paradise and his hero Dean Moriarty, traveller and mystic, the living epitome of Beat. Now recognized as a modern classic, Kerouac's American Dream is nearer that of Walt Whitman than F. Scott Fitzgerald's, and the narrative goes racing towards the sunset with unforgettable exuberance, poignancy and passion.

I also enjoyed William S Burroughs' Junky. That guy was a legend in his time. He lived until his eighties and did heroin up until the end.

 

[Mr.PlanetEater]

Charles Dickens, is probably my favorite classic literary figure. There's just something interesting about the way he approached social and class differences in the Victorian era. Oliver Twist is still probably my favorite novel I've read, besides Catcher in the Rye.

 

[Griphphin]

Reading The Slaughterhouse Five right now, and it's quite good (if not a bit disorienting at first), but my favorite's got to be Cry, The Beloved Country, just so moving.

 

[Kuchinawa212]

The first men in the moon! I love that book! written, like, a hundred years ago but the way the Bedford and Cavor interact with the aliens I find such a fun read. And a good moral at the end. I love this book to death

 

[MorsePacific]

I'm quite a fan of Watership Down and The Divine Comedy. They're both just extremely interesting.

 

[Infinatex]

Fahrenheit 451 would have to be one of my all time favorites. If you haven't read it I would highly recommend it.

 

[Gorrister]

Currently re-reading IT by Stephen King for about the 4th time. Still in love with it. Just about anything that man does really.

 

[ribonuge]

Fahrenheit 451 would have to be one of my all time favorites. If you haven't read it I would highly recommend it.

That's by Ray Bradbury isn't it? I've been meaning to pick it up seeing as how I loved The Illustrated Man.

 

[TheLazyKnight]

I absolutely love Tolkien. I own most of his published works and have read each one I own. My favorite piece of his is actually outside of Middle Earth. He has a translation of the poems Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Sir Orfeo, and The Pearl. While he did not author them, his translations are superb.If you like Tolkien, you should check out The Worm Ouroboros by E.R. Eddison.

I am personally a huge fan of Shakespeare and the many spin-offs of his works. My favorite play of his has to be Hamlet, but it was made even better once I read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead by Tom Stoppard.

Right now I'm reading The Call of the Wild and White Fang by Jack London.

 

[HonorableChairman]

Try to stick with classics, and these can include modern breaks such as... Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein. Okay. I'll go first.

I wouldn't quite call LOTR modern. On the subject, I didn't like the books simply because Tolkien was way too into his world for his own good, and had problems letting it go. (case in point: long exposition bombs out of nowhere, the return to the Shire in ROTK, etc) The trilogy are some of the few books that I feel was greatly improved by transition to film. I do adore The Hobbit, though.

Either way, I've come to realize that I'm the only human on earth below the age of 30 who liked To Kill a Mockingbird. I honestly found it very interesting. My favorite pieces of literature are probably Thoreau's Walden and Voltaire's Candide. Most anything by Jack London gets an honorable mention, along with Alice in Wonderland and Poe stuff. I have a pretty erratic sense of literature, since I don't quite read as much as I'd like...

 

[pigeon_of_doom]

Either way, I've come to realize that I'm the only human on earth below the age of 30 who liked To Kill a Mockingbird. I honestly found it very interesting.

I loved it(19 here), although I realise this is probably because I never had to study it at school. I have a similar relationship with Catcher in the Rye. Mockingbird just came across as really charming to me, and had a great way of getting its point across trying to trigger an emotive, empathising reaction rather than persuasion by logic or rhetoric. I reckon Harper Lee was a great writer too (if a little too keen on alliteration), shame she didn't write more (although Mockingbird is near impossible to try and followup).

 

[Lord Beautiful]

My favorite is The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. Before you guys get on to me for not picking a piece of "classic literature," I'd like to say that every piece of "classic literature" I've read, whether I liked it or not, was riddled with things I could ***** about. They were very, very flawed. In the case of The Name of the Wind, not only is the story fantastic, not only is the writing wonderful, not only is the pacing excellent, but it is the one book I've read that I can not ***** about.