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/lit/ - Literature

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20844700 No.20844700 [Reply] [Original]

If you were being truly balanced (I won't say unbiased because that's impossible), who do you think is the greatest author of the 20th century?

>> No.20844721

>>20844700
F gardner

>> No.20844746

>>20844700
joyce in his own tier, followed by proust and nabokov in the next.

>> No.20844755

I'd probably say Huxley or Orwell.

>> No.20844756

>>20844700
Harper lee was a woman? I almost make the mistake of buying one of her books

>> No.20844759

>>20844746
t. the most insufferable type of reader
The answer is Hesse btw OP, TS a close second

>> No.20844914

>>20844700
Me desu

>> No.20844921

Kafka

>> No.20844952
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20844952

Thomas Pynchon. He’s on his own level. Every other writer - Joyce, Shakespeare, Nabokov, Tolstoy, Proust - are but pale imitations of his grandeur.

>drops mic

/thread

>> No.20844975

>>20844759
You're a faggot.
Joyce mogs every 20th century author.

>> No.20845018

>>20844700
I would say no.

>> No.20845650
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20845650

>>20844700
>...

>> No.20845664

Nabokov

>> No.20845672
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20845672

Pynchon

>> No.20845674

>>20844700
didn't knew j.d. salinger died last year

>> No.20845765

>>20844952
thanks tim. go to bed

>> No.20845813
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20845813

>>20844756

>> No.20845842

>>20844700
The best writer in your pic is easily Woolf, without competition. But greatest writer of the 20th would have to be a modernist like her. Proust, Joyce, Pound, Eliot?

>> No.20845843

>>20845674
>last year

>> No.20845927

>>20844700
Joyce, Woolf and Nabokov. I like the others as well but these three were/are on another level entirely.

>> No.20845938

>>20844700
Objectively Vladimir Lenin, because his writings by far had the biggest effect on world history

>> No.20845940
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20845940

F Gardner

>> No.20846264

>>20845842
It's what comes up when you google best 20th century authors. I agree with both your points

>> No.20846396

>all fucking angloes

>> No.20846686

>>20844700
This is really tough. Part of my wants to say Alexander Theroux and part of me wants to be an annoying git and say John Barth. I would probably say on balance it is Mishima in sheer ability to write something compelling but the 20th century had people who technically mastered prose such as Barth, A Theroux, Gass, and Joyce even at times.

>> No.20846737

>>20844952
This but unironically. If Pynchon never wrote anything but M&D and GR, he would be in firm contention for the best of the 20th. It's a shame more people haven't read M&D. The shame is doubled that his most famous work is GR. While GR is fantastic, the mastery in Mason & Dixon is a generational accomplishment.

>> No.20846757

>>20844700
Judging by how we rewrite previous centuries all "top 100" type authors will likely fall by the wayside in the coming centuries. Some unknown and unloved cunts nobody cares about will be proclaimed the finest examples of our era and all authors you could name will be dismissed as popular trash.

>> No.20846776

James Joyce

>> No.20846822

It's a wash. The 20th century had a lot of good writers, but no great writers.

>> No.20846940

>>20846822
Okay retard

>> No.20846959

>>20846737
Much like how Nabokov is remembered primarily for Lolita and Pale Fire but Ada is his true highest achievement.

>> No.20847187

>>20844700
Nabokov, but I'm not very well-read.

>> No.20847363
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20847363

>>20844700
>>20844721
>>20844755
>>20844756
>>20844759
>>20844914
>>20844921
>>20844975
>>20845674
>>20845813
>>20845842
>>20845843
>>20845927
>>20845938
>>20845940
>>20846264
>>20846396
>>20846686
>>20846737
>>20846757
>>20846776
>>20846822
>>20846940
>>20846959
>>20847187
>>20845650
>>20845664
>>20845672
>Pic rel MOGS ALL YOUR SHITTY TASTES

>> No.20847387

>>20844759
>Hesse
Are you 17?

>> No.20847416

>>20847363
Go back to your containment thread

>> No.20847560

>>20847187
nice way to say that your a retard xD

>> No.20847584

>>20846396
Other spheres need to up their game desu.
>>20844700
My vote also goes to Joyce because of how influential his experimentation with prose and style was and continues to be. Dubliners is a definitive short story collection. Portrait is a key bildungsroman. Ulysses might as well be a style guide for all other modernists and well over half of the major writers of today. I don't see how anyone else really can compare. He also has the advantage of being muddled with controversy, exile, and an iconic look.