GOAT authors

Tolstoy

monolingual anglotards should be removed from Veeky Forums

>"stop this name dropping"
>proceeds to name drop
I do love Kafka though, but I was hesitant to mention him because I have trouble drawing the line between something I like and whether or not it's justified on an artistic level

Whenever I google it I get shit like JK Rowling and YA authors

Actually read the other authors and then tell me what you think

I do love Chekhov's short stories as much as Kafka's, and Chekhov is a big inspiration to me as an overall human being not just a writer, but like I said about Kafka I'm hesitant to claim a work is justified on an artistic level just because I like it

I haven't read him yet but hopefully he lives up to the hype

Cervantes, Calderon de la Barca, Lope de Vega, Unamuno, Borges, Bolaño.

Murasaki Shikibu
Cao Xueqin
Wu Cheng'en

>"stop this name dropping"
>proceeds to name drop

tkat was ironic hehe

whats your native language? tell us what literary opinion is in your country, seriously I'm interested as I thought Shakespeare was revered everywhere except perhaps France.

MELVILLE
SHAKESPEARE

I expected these to be fpbp

I have read your Faulkner. You're pulling my leg.

Poetry before and after her is as distinct as before and after speare

In English its the King James scholars, Shakespeare, Milton and Melville.

Joyce and Proust are the greatest of 20th century writers, not the greatest writers of all time. Dostoevsky is largely acknowledged to be a bad writer, people read him for his ideas rather than his facility with words.

>Dante
>Not on the level of Shakespeare

Nelville is great, but he isn't GOAT compared to the GOATs.

>No Chaucer

Honor the Ballsack!

K who is she though?

H.D. bud.

I always thought Dostoevskij wasn't a virtuoso writer, but to say people read him only for his ideas seems a bit of a stretch. In my opinion one of the more fascinating things about him is exactly how powerful his characters and stories can be despite the plain and somewhat clunky prose.

His characters are strong because of the believable psychology he puts into them and his deep insights into human psychology was included when I said people read him for his ideas.

Based Lope de Vega

For the love of the universe, read In Search of Lost Time, the whole set of 7 books. It takes you on a life changing perspective of life.

Just fucking write Hilda Doolittle you fucking snob twat!

But I can't read French!

Herman Melville and Laurence Sterne.

Moby Dick and Tristram Shandy could be the greatest novels ever written in the English language

>Wu Cheng'en
Specifically the Ghostface Killah

>greatest authors of all time
>gay loser that lives in his mother's attic
>and a drunken irish pirate with a fart fetish that wrote run-on sentences
really makes you think

U know its true

>Bruno Schulz
alright, that is just ridiculous to include in a list of "best ever" in the same breath as kafka and faulkner. sure, schulz is good--a little too ornate and sentimental for my taste, though great at creating surreal happenings--but based on his scant output alone you can't claim he's reached the heights of a GOAT

nobody has ever compared to cervantes and shakespeare, why do we have to have these threads so frequently

Who was the gay one that lived in their moms attic?

uyyyyy dios mio una vela *eats a taco*

99.9% of novels are trash and a waste of time.
A good story should only take about 10-30 pages to tell.
Poe, Borges and Chekhov are the best writers ever.

as much as i like HD this is simply not true

Borges was mong tier for spreading this opinion which I don't think he even believed.

Proust, of course.

No fair posting yourself

He's right and I'm serious as well.

There are the few novels in the canon everyone should read....Don Quixote, Madame Bovary, Crime and Punishment etc, but it truly is an inferior form of storytelling.

The short story cuts out all the unnecessary bullshit, and in a lot of ways it is more challenging to write. Any dumb schmuck can get an idea and stretch it out to 700 pages with boring subplots that add nothing to the story.
But crafting short stories forces you to make sure every sentence is flawless and no space is wasted.

Definitely:
Shakespeare
Dante
Goethe
Proust
Joyce

Arguably:
Chaucer
Cervantes
Melville
Kafka

Underrated (imo):
William Blake

One could go a step further and say poetry was superior to all other forms of writing, if we're going with shortest is the bestest.

I mostly read poetry and short stories, so I partly agree with that statement.

>crafting short stories forces you to make sure every sentence is flawless and no space is wasted
or you could do that over the course of a novel, which is even more impressive, since you did it for longer

True, but like I said, there's a reason why roughly the same novels show up on every list of the best novels ever.

It's because out of the millions of novels written in history, only a handful are above average and worth your time to sit through.

So sure, everyone says to read Moby Dick and Ulysses because they are impressive works, but like you yourself even said, a true 10/10 novel is a rare achievement and only comes along once every 25 years or so.

>Any dumb schmuck can get an idea and stretch it out to 700 pages

lol ok you do it

so... short stories are the better medium because they're easier to write... and the writers who were good at them are therefore the best writers ever, despite there being authors out there who have written the best novels, which are harder to write... hmmmmmm

No, Dante is not on Shakespeare's level. He's just another writer of epics, albeit an excellent one.

I'm not monolingual; I am fluent in French and have lesser capabilities in the other Romance languages and Latin. I have actually probably read more French than British novels. However, British poetry and drama is amazing.

I have read the other authors. I'll let you know what I think then.

>Joyce
Great novelist and psychologist. Revolutionized the novel (sort of - stream-of-consciousness is just a continuation of free and indirect discourse in prose), however, only a select few have chosen to write in his vein. Joyce's influence doesn't extend beyond a few elitists.

>Proust
I think Joyce said it best when he said something along the lines of "the reader finishes Proust's sentences before he does." They say he's more direct in French, but anytime I've opened him up in French, I discern no difference. Vastly overrated author. I would not even rank him with the best French novelists such as Flaubert or Stendhal. Even Maupassant is better than this mama's boy.

>Tolstoyevsky
It baffles me how people meme about Russian literature when there's only one author people actually read, Tolstoyevsky. Most of the Russian authors weren't even available in English until the 1920's because people wanted to understand why the Russian revolution happened; before then, Russian literature and culture was seen as backwards and irrelevant. What Tolstoyevsky said about Shakespeare's popularity being due to the work of German philologists is actually sort of true about the Rooshians; they were a historical curiosity that became popular because of a few edgy scenes that satisfy the edgelords such as that guy who kills the old lady and has dreams about donkeys being beaten.

>Dante
Again, just another writer of epics, although he certainly is a master of it. Obviously the Divine Comedy is far superior to, say, Don Juan by Lord Byron. Dante is the only writer here who comes close to Shakespeare and Homer. Maybe he belongs on the same tier as Homer which is within grasping distance of Shakespeare's tier?

>Homer
Homer is a baffling case because it's hard to imagine literature without him. It's a bit like that quote by Russell (?) about philosophy being a footnote to Homer. Literature would not be crippled too much if Joyce, Proust, and Tolstoyevsky had never existed. On the other hand, a world without Homer and Shakespeare is simply unimaginable. Since I am a modern, obviously Shakespeare is more comprehensible and his genius is far easier to comprehend. But Homer, it's a bit more of an effort.

tl;dr Other authors are great, but you're fooling yourself if you think any others deserve the designation "GOAT" equally with Shakespeare.

>Russell (?) about philosophy being a footnote to Homer.

Whitehead.

You make reasoned points but most anons here are too myopic and committed to their favorites to accept it. I rate Dante higher than you do but whatever.

doesn't matter. Ofc in the original it will be slightly more pleasing but french and english syntax ligns up so similarly. You'll love it.

After I wrote that post, I had thought about it some more and realized I am judging Dante improperly. I reckon Homer is the best representation of the ancient, Dante of the medieval, and Shakespeare of the modern. Those poets mastered everything that came before them and made something new. You can't really say that about other authors.

I have to admit that I am not as familiar with Dante as I am the other authors, but I know how vital he is to the Middle Ages. Not giving him his credit where it is due is like slighting Bach's importance to the Baroque era. And classical music would be nothing without Bach just as the rest of literature would be without Dante.

I simply don't read as much Dante because my Italian is at an elementary level. I can read it properly, but I dislike having to look up every other word. I also remember when I had been studying Italian that Dante's Tuscan was pretty different in places from modern Italian.

Nonetheless we moderns have to
>start with the Anglos

this

Posting authors I haven't seen who I think deserve consideration

>Yeats
>Twain
>Hawthorne
>Poe
>Hemingway

Anyone who thinks Shakespeare isn't the GOAT should be banned from the writing community at large

Twain is a no brainier, and Poe is the only other one worth consideration there. The rest are nothing special - especially Hawthorne.

How can you shit on Hemingway so badly? He is widely respected among the literary community. He's able to say so much with so few words. His rhetoric is second to none.

I don't think I shit on him *that* badly, just said he was nothing to write home about. I love Hemingway and Poe even more, but GOAT I think not. I'm not even that big a fan of Twain, but i feel, in all honesty, that's he's better than Hemingway.

I enjoy all of these authors but they're not GOAT; that's Shakespeare.

Besides, GREATEST is singular. Only one author can be the greatest. And he's Shakespeare.

I agree with you phamalagm

Most other authors are too flawed, whereas it is very difficult to pick them out in Shakespeare. Chances are, if you think you've found a flaw in Shakespeare, you're really just misguided.

Yeah the only flaw in Shakespeare is that he didn't wrote his plays

REALLY?

What about modern day authors? Like...from the past 15 years or so. Have there been any greats?

Definitely not. I mean, there are some who have achieved a wide amount of fame, writers such as the postmoderns that are so famous on here (Pynchon, Wallace, etc.), but they're not geniuses, just pretentious followers of Joyce.

Either the novel has been explored fully (by the Modernists) or we're on the brink of discovering some radically different territory. Personally I wager we're not going to see anything new. We don't have an active critical culture as there was during the Modernist period.

Postmodernism is just a bunch of guys just on hobby projects in their garages and basements on little DIY projects. With Modernism, there was actually dialogue and influence being shared. Modernism was a golden age.

Anyway, I'm not sure where's the next frontier in literature, in terms of form. That's a million dollar question.

I think Shakespeare has by far the best claim to GREATEST AUTHOR but it's blind bardolatry to deny his faults. His later stuff is largely perfect, but his early works are ridden with missteps as he practiced his craft.

>He's just another writer of epics
If you're this shallow it's no wonder you can't see greatness when it pokes you in the eye.

Hmmm, true. But even the Taming of the Shrew is better than Ulysses.

If you read on, you would see I backpedaled in another post.

Ancient GOAT: Homer
Medieval GOAT: Dante
Modern GOAT: Shakespeare

I was unfair to Dante because I'm just a bit pissed anyone could say 19th century novelists are as good as Shakespeare. He was collateral damage in my railing against people like Tolstoyevsky.

Silence and blank pages, and letting the reader interpret the work as they please (they will read it as their own subjects anyways) is the best literature

>Hemingway
>Even top 100.

Dante, Shakespeare, Cervantes, Goethe, Joyce, Proust, Mann

You post about this woman everyday user.
Are you okay?

Petrescu Camil

I get being dumb, but I don't get spending so much time and effort to showcase your stupidity.

Did I step on someone's toes? Are you a butthurt non-Anglo?

>But even the Taming of the Shrew is better than Ulysses.

Defend this statement. Not a personal attack or anything and I said earlier () I generally agree with your points but I'm gonna need you to elaborate on this, since I obviously disagree.

Despite Nabokov's opinion, Balzac is generally considered to be one of the best of all time. Lost Illusions is nearly a masterpiece.

>philosophy footnote to homer
It's Plato you fukin pleb. Cant even get that right for fucks sake

Not everyday, and I actually got few other people posting now.
Read trilogy user, it's the best thing modernism has to offer.

Okay, guys, I'm dropping the bomb. Would you consider Tolkien goat author? I haven't read the books, but I did read some passages of them, and it's a quite nice, comfortable read, suitable to the tone and overall message of the books. Saying he is shit tier just because his work was high fantasy doesn't count. I wanna know about his style of writing and the way he could tell a story.

I mean, in his own genre, he is way above other authors such as Rowling, Martin and many other faggots.

Oh, fuck off.

>l I haven't read the books,
stopped reading right here. fuck off.

Ok, I'll admit I was shitposting when I said the bit about Taming of the Shrew. I also wasn't fair to Dante. I won't fuck up thrice.

No, I was making an analogy to the famous quote, you mong.

>im autistic - the post

kys

kys

>Dante
>Again, just another writer of epics

Ok, ok, I have seen your rectification but on a side note this really reminds me how we should be humble with our judgements giving how deep our ignorance can be

ok. ok. wow. just. ok. here are the true rankings, and I would go as far as saying that the rest of fiction as a whole is a waste of time, and you're better off reading poetry or watching TV instead of reading authors who are not in this list

SUPREME MASTER GOD TIER: THE MASTER OF ALL IN THE KINGDOM OF GREAT WRITERS IN HUMAN HISTORY, AT THE TOP OF THE HIGHEST TOWER, MASTURBATING 10-15 TIMES PER DAY, AS THE HAND WITH WHICH HE WRITES ARTISTIC MASTERPIECES IS MORE SEXUALLY APPEALING THAN ANY ADONIS THE GODS CAN CONJURE
>Proust

VICE-SUPREME MASTER GOD TIER: THE ONLY WRITER DESERVING TO BE IN SAME ROOM AS THE SUPREME MASTER GOD
>Joyce

GOD TIER: OCCUPYING THE MARBLE CASTLE WITH THE SUPREME AND VICE SUPREME MASTER GOD
>Tolstoy
>Homer
>Dante
>Dostoevsky
>Shakespeare

ANGELIC DEMON TIER: PATROLLING THE CASTLE WALLS OF THE GOD TIERS AND ABOVE, AND DOING THEIR BIDDING ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, CAPTURING AND PILLAGING ENTIRE PLANETS TO TO INTO PLANET-SIZED "THE MATRIX"-TYPE BODY HARVESTING FARMS, BUT THEY HARVEST HUMAN FARTS INSTEAD OF ELECTRICITY, PACKED IN DIAMOND JARS, FOR THE FART-LOVING PROUST AND JOYCE TO HOLD UP TO THEIR NOSES AND SHIFT THEIR NOSES LEFT AND RIGHT ALONG THE RIM OF THE JAR LIKE SNIFFING A FINE WINE, THEN TAKING A HUMONGOUS INHALE AND ACHIEVING UNFATHOMABLE ORGASM, "AH, A 2017 RUSSIAN LUMBERJACK FART, GOOD YEAR" THEY SAY, NODDING THEIR HEADS AT THE ANGELIC DEMONS WHO DO THEIR BIDDING, THE ANGELIC DEMONS' HEARTS FILLED WITH JOY AT THE HONOR OF SERVING THEIR MASTERS
>Goethe
>Kafka
>Chekhov
>Morrissey
>Nabakov
>Melville
>Chaucer
>Cervantes
>Ambrose motherfucking Bierce!

HONORABLE DRAGON WORK CREATURE TIER: THESE WRITERS' SOULS HAVE POSSESSED THE BODIES OF DRAGONS WITH LIME GREEN FUR AND FLORESCENT TIGER STRIPES WHO BREATHE GAMMA RAY BURSTS AND CIRCLE THE SUPREME MASTER GOD'S KINGDOM BY THE MILLIONS, AND OPERATE AS A HIVE MIND, AND HAVE BEEN GENETICALLY MODIFIED WITH TARDIGRADE DNA TO SURVIVE IN SPACE AND EVEN BLACK HOLES, TO HONOR WORKS THAT I ENJOYED PERSONALLY BUT THAT MAY NOT BE AS JUSTIFIED ON AN ARTISTIC LEVEL BY CONSENSUS
>Hesse
>Pynchon
>Hemingway
>Foster Wallace
>Woolf
>Flaubert
>George Eliot
>Balzac
>Borges

double doubles confirms

lol, greatest can be plural as well

You FUCKING nerd..

Ok, I forgive the Proust shitposter who's been clogging the boards. This was amusing.

You wanna go, bitch? Fight me.

Pessoa is the best modernist author, better than Joyce.

In order to communicate the deep psychological ideas, the prose must at least be, in those cases, powerful and with an economy of language

Dejavue writing this post