Ritalin comments on The Classic Literature Workshop - Less Wrong Discussion
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What, and miss out on Isaac Asimov's Foundation series and The Caves of Steel and I, Robot and...?
Pardon me, I of course meant to start the date from 'The Hobbit'. Lax of me. Foundation was great, particularly the first time I read it a couple of decades ago.
I've read things from before then, but largely under coercion. I'm utterly unimpressed by Shakespere and want those years of my life back.
Have you read Borges? I would be very surprised if someone attracted to the LW memeset didn't enjoy him. Nabokov is another good bet, I think.
Nabokov put out most of his famous work after WWII (and thus The Hobbit); Lolita was published in 1955, Pale Fire in 1962. With LW as an audience I think I'd recommend the latter over the former, although they're both quite good. Borges was also most prolific postwar, although there isn't a sharp division with him like there is with Nabokov.
While we're recommending authors, I might as well give a nod to Mikhail Bulgakov (The Master and Margarita; Heart of a Dog). Though he's one that's hard to put an era to; he died in 1940, but The Master and Margarita was published in 1968. Translations into English came even later.
Actually, the Nabokov novels I prefer are generally the ones he originally wrote in Russian, pre-war. My favorite is probably The Eye.
Never heard of them. Thankyou for the recommendation. Since I near constantly have audiobooks running at high speed in my earphones as background noise I find myself hard pressed to find enough non-trashy content to catch my attention.
As a fan of Shakespeare, can I ask which ones you read? Shakespeare wrote a large number of plays, and their quality varies considerably. There are a number of his plays that I actively dislike, and an even larger number that I am indifferent towards, but the ones I like, I like enough that I understand why people consider him to be so great.
If it isn't to much trouble, can I also ask how you were exposed to them? My understanding is that most people's first (and often only) exposure to Shakespeare's plays is through reading their scripts in high school English classes over the course of several weeks; this is unequivicably the wrong way to experience them -- the plays are, first and foremost, plays; that is to say, things to be performed.
Romeo and Juliet was the one I was forced to study the most. I wasn't impressed. I saw A Midsummer Night's Dream at the theatre and it wasn't nearly as tiresome.
Excessively. Reading scripts, watching movies, watching plays, writing essays, memorizing passwords, pretending things are Deep and Insightful. Unfortunately 'English' was the one subject that wasn't an elective.
Personally, I liked Romeo and Juilet.
My favorite part is Friar Lawrence's epic chewing out of Romeo for trying to kill himself. (It's the single longest speech in the play.)
I also liked Hamlet. Julius Caesar was boring, though.