In your opinion, who is the greatest writer since Shakespeare?

Swiper the fox

Jimmy Iovine wrote: »

A lot of great names have been mentioned so far. Personally, the Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy would be very high on my list. I'm going to have to go with Padraiggg as my number one writer. He has a talent that cannot be taught or learnt. It is simply a gift from God.

Sure Keats was never appreciated in his lifetime either, all padraigg has to do now is contract TB and shuffle off and he could be looking at a nobel prize.

HeadPig

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Sure Keats was never appreciated in his lifetime either, all padraigg has to do now is contract TB and shuffle off and he could be looking at a nobel prize.

Unfortunately for him the Nobel is never awarded posthumously.

Eramen

Fyodor Dostoevsky +1

buck65

Eramen wrote: »

Fyodor Dostoevsky +1

Yes, all day.

Ernest Oreo

Roddy Doyle

laugh

Shakespeare was born in Latin and buried in English, his contribution to English was incredible.

ViveLaVie

I personally think Shakespeare is the greatest english language writer the world has ever known. That said, I think Oscar Wilde is incredible and Joyce would have to be a nominee.

ViveLaVie

Mardy Bum wrote: »

Although this does not imply that he is the best, Joyce surpassed Shakespeare, then record holder, in terms of academic articles published on his works two years ago. It would imply that both are held in extremely high regard by those in academia.

Joyce's work, although somewhat indulgent in his later years, is phenomenal. The man's mind and work ethic was unbelievable.

In terms of a writer who attempted all genres of literature Oscar Wilde should be considered. A Picture of Dorian Gray, "The Importance of Being Earnest", "The Happy Prince and Other Tales", his numerous works of poetry along with Salome is as formidable body of work that any writer has produced before and since.

Do you have a link for that? I googled it but haven't found anything. I would have thought Shakespeare was easily the record holder - very interested to know if Joyce has now surpassed him!

Mardy Bum

ViveLaVie wrote: »

Do you have a link for that? I googled it but haven't found anything. I would have thought Shakespeare was easily the record holder - very interested to know if Joyce has now surpassed him!

A Joycean scholar told me that about 3 years ago. I took him on good faith.

Swiper the fox

To be fair it seems impossible that Joyce would have more academic articles devoted to is work, perhaps Ulysses has more than Hamlet or something like that, even then I'd be surprised, in the grand scheme of things I would imagine that Shakespeare has multiples more than Joyce

Violate_Me

Albert Camus

Mardy Bum

Swiper the fox wrote: »

To be fair it seems impossible that Joyce would have more academic articles devoted to is work, perhaps Ulysses has more than Hamlet or something like that, even then I'd be surprised, in the grand scheme of things I would imagine that Shakespeare has multiples more than Joyce

It seems a bit outrageous and a quick look at Literature Online has Shakespeare at over 20000 more articles but I'm not really sure why he would lie!

Swiper the fox

Is it possible that Ulysses had overtaken Hamlet?

Anyway this debate is a bit silly, some people will consider Marian Keyes great, others Dan Brown, literary snobs (I would class myself as a minor one) will spout about Joyce but he is unreadable for 90% of the population, can that really be considered great? Shakespeare was the Dan Brown and Marian Keyes of his day, as well as the Seamus Heaney, John B. Keane, Martin McDonagh, everybody to be honest, I know we've been culturally dumbed down by television etc but surely the greatest has to appeal to a wide cross section of the public. Dickens fits the bill along with a few more recent writers.

Mardy Bum

Swiper the fox wrote: »

Is it possible that Ulysses had overtaken Hamlet?

Anyway this debate is a bit silly, some people will consider Marian Keyes great, others Dan Brown, literary snobs (I would class myself as a minor one) will spout about Joyce but he is unreadable for 90% of the population, can that really be considered great? Shakespeare was the Dan Brown and Marian Keyes of his day, as well as the Seamus Heaney, John B. Keane, Martin McDonagh, everybody to be honest, I know we've been culturally dumbed down by television etc but surely the greatest has to appeal to a wide cross section of the public. Dickens fits the bill along with a few more recent writers.

The title is framed in such a way though that the thread is supposed to be subjective and more of a conversation rather than debate I think. Greatest writer to me would mean the greatest artist rather than commercial writers like Keyes or Brown. There is a sharp distinction between artistic and commercial writing. One is deeply unsettling and must be grappled with and generally not accepted in its time (See Wilde's Salome, Ulysses, Waiting for Godot initially) while the other is something which is meant to placate and entertain without any effort (See any Boucicault). Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest because he moves between the two spheres easily.

In televisual entertainment The Wire is a show which moves between the two spheres and this is what marks it as imo the greatest artistic success television has produced. David Lynch the film maker moves between the two spheres and has been successful with a few of these attempts (but has also failed as it is quite a difficult thing to get right). Postmodernist and post postmodernist writing has pulled literature into an extremely self conscious and heightened form that it is becoming more and more difficult for an artist to be innovative but also grounded. There are a few writers like Franzen and McCarthy and Murkami and Foster Wallace who are and were pioneers of a new dawn. McCarthy and Murkami could be considered as writers which have gone between the two spheres but Franzen and DFW are not as populist.

ViveLaVie

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The title is framed in such a way though that the thread is supposed to be subjective and more of a conversation rather than debate I think. Greatest writer to me would mean the greatest artist rather than commercial writers like Keyes or Brown. There is a sharp distinction between artistic and commercial writing. One is deeply unsettling and must be grappled with and generally not accepted in its time (See Wilde's Salome, Ulysses, Waiting for Godot initially) while the other is something which is meant to placate and entertain without any effort (See any Boucicault). Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest because he moves between the two spheres easily.

In televisual entertainment The Wire is a show which moves between the two spheres and this is what marks it as imo the greatest artistic success television has produced. David Lynch the film maker moves between the two spheres and has been successful with a few of these attempts (but has also failed as it is quite a difficult thing to get right). Postmodernist and post postmodernist writing has pulled literature into an extremely self conscious and heightened form that it is becoming more and more difficult for an artist to be innovative but also grounded. There are a few writers like Franzen and McCarthy and Murkami and Foster Wallace who are and were pioneers of a new dawn. McCarthy and Murkami could be considered as writers which have gone between the two spheres but Franzen and DFW are not as populist.

The Wire is an absolutely stunning piece of work. A masterpiece of television.

JustAddWater

Alan shatter!

Da Shins Kelly

Mardy Bum wrote: »

The title is framed in such a way though that the thread is supposed to be subjective and more of a conversation rather than debate I think. Greatest writer to me would mean the greatest artist rather than commercial writers like Keyes or Brown. There is a sharp distinction between artistic and commercial writing. One is deeply unsettling and must be grappled with and generally not accepted in its time (See Wilde's Salome, Ulysses, Waiting for Godot initially) while the other is something which is meant to placate and entertain without any effort (See any Boucicault). Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest because he moves between the two spheres easily.

In televisual entertainment The Wire is a show which moves between the two spheres and this is what marks it as imo the greatest artistic success television has produced. David Lynch the film maker moves between the two spheres and has been successful with a few of these attempts (but has also failed as it is quite a difficult thing to get right). Postmodernist and post postmodernist writing has pulled literature into an extremely self conscious and heightened form that it is becoming more and more difficult for an artist to be innovative but also grounded. There are a few writers like Franzen and McCarthy and Murkami and Foster Wallace who are and were pioneers of a new dawn. McCarthy and Murkami could be considered as writers which have gone between the two spheres but Franzen and DFW are not as populist.

I love Murkami and Cormac McCarthy, and I'd also place Thomas Pynchon up there as easily one of the greatest living writers and one of the greatest of all time.