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TOP TEN WORKS OF THE 20TH CENTURY N1: Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

Discussion in 'Music, TV, Movies & other Media' started by litwin, Feb 10, 2012.

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  1. Jonsa

    Jonsa Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Stranger in a Strange Land, Heinlein

    Snow Crash, Stephenson

    Foundation Trilogy, Asimov

    Gulag Archipelago, Solzhenitsyn

    Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, Shirer
     
    Jonsa, Feb 15, 2012
    #26
  2. Josey Wales

    Josey Wales New Member

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    Ranks Right Up There With Debbie Does Dallas I Think??
     
    Josey Wales, Feb 15, 2012
    #27
  3. waltky

    waltky Well-Known Member

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    Sting's wasn't so bad either...

    Don't Stand So Close to Me
    by Sting
     
    waltky, Feb 15, 2012
    #28
  4. Osiris Faction

    Osiris Faction Well-Known Member

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    The collected works of H.P. Lovecraft.

    As well as the collected works of Edgar Allen Poe.

    Certainly should be some where near the top 25.
     
    Osiris Faction, Feb 15, 2012
    #29
  5. MegadethFan

    MegadethFan Well-Known Member

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    Americans are a little touchy about such issues, or rather, conservatives. They prefer a PC world where you can just suppress literary art and alternative thought. Reminds me of liberals.
     
    MegadethFan, Feb 15, 2012
    #30
  6. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Great choice. Catch-22 made the Modern Library's Top 10 List, and it's certainly on mine:

    I'm surprised Ernest Hemingway keeps escaping these lists.

    Honorable mention to Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner...
     
    Talon, Feb 15, 2012
    #31
  7. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    That's some people in this country, Litwin, not all...
     
    Talon, Feb 15, 2012
    #32
  8. litwin

    litwin Well-Known Member

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    question for Americans here, if Nabokov is so controversial for you. whats for you works of Jean Genet or Marquis de Sade?
     
    litwin, Feb 15, 2012
    #33
  9. litwin

    litwin Well-Known Member

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    right, but they dominate others , free minded =libertine=pervert=liberal=communist
     
    litwin, Feb 15, 2012
    #34
  10. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    They try to dominate others, but Americans have no problems whatsoever obtaining uncensored, controversial Literature that some may consider offensive, vulgar and/or pornographic. You might be surprised at the exhibitions I've seen in public art galleries here in the States...
     
    Talon, Feb 15, 2012
    #35
  11. litwin

    litwin Well-Known Member

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    in which city? then art galleries belong to marginal part of mass culture, whats about mainstream : Hollywood, HBO, etc.
     
    litwin, Feb 15, 2012
    #36
  12. diligent

    diligent New Member

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    Talon.

    I forgot to mention Darkness at Noon,but I'm sorry I couldn't fit it into the list.A chilling reminder of the way the neurotic despots,in this case of the hardline Left ,treats its own members. No doubt they just love to forget this despicable period in their history and firmly believe only the extreme right of politics is capable of such brutality.
     
    diligent, Feb 16, 2012
    #37
  13. DonGlock26

    DonGlock26 New Member Past Donor

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    Brave New World should be in the top ten for sure. I loved that book. I'm more of a sci-fi/ fantasy fan myself. The Lord of the Rings is an epic of our time. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman is another classic. I liked Catch 22 and Fight Club as well.

    I guess that I will have to make time to read more of the classics. Audible.com has a lot of books for your iPhone/iPod.


    _

    _
     
    DonGlock26, Feb 16, 2012
    #38
  14. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    In various cities.

    Certainly, art galleries aren't mass media (Hollywood, television, etc.), but the visual arts are no less a part of mass culture than the literary arts that we're discussing here.

    As far as mass media are concerned, there are obviously less restrictions on the content in films ("Hollywood") and cable TV than what you find on broadcast TV (ABC, CBS, NBC, UPN, Public TV, etc.). Anything goes in Hollywood, while the television networks must sanitize their content to a certain degree. This doesn't mean that broadcast television can't and won't handle controversial subject matter, but it does mean that they're limited on what language and content they are legally permitted to broadcast over the open airwaves.
     
    Talon, Feb 16, 2012
    #39
  15. Talon

    Talon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    I haven't read Darkness at Noon, but two novels on a similar note that rank amongst my own personal favorites are Boris Pasternak's Dr. Zhivago and Ayn Rand's Anthem. I rank Anthem as one of the best novels of the 20th Century based solely on the merits of the themes and ideas expressed in the book - I've never considered her a writer that could be mentioned in the same breath as Faulkner, Joyce and Heller. That having been said, she does a great job of taking Socialism/Communism to its logical (or should I say absurd?) extreme/conclusion in Anthem. Great stuff...
     
    Talon, Feb 16, 2012
    #40
  16. diligent

    diligent New Member

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    I tried (valiantly) to read James Joyce's Ulysses but couldn't really get the gist of it.I had similar trouble initially with Catch 22 until, a quarter of the way through the book, the 'penny dropped'. I don't know how anybody could really understand the film, unless they had read the book first.

    So maybe, after all this time I should try, again, to read Ulysses.
     
    diligent, Feb 19, 2012
    #41
  17. JohnConstantine

    JohnConstantine Active Member

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    I don't know about greatest works of the 20th century, I'm not into hyperbole, it's of course relative. But here's some of my favourites in no particular order.

    A Place of Dead Roads - Bill Burroughs
    Metamorphosis - Kafka
    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - HST
    Naked Lunch - Burroughs
    Sidartha - Hermann Hesse
    Down and out in Paris and London - Orwell
    Alone in Berlin - Hans Fallada
    Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
    1984 - Orwell
    Talks with the Devil - PD Ouspensky
    Revolution Betrayed - Trotsky
    Burmese Days - Orwell
     
    JohnConstantine, Oct 3, 2012
    #42
  18. Paris

    Paris Well-Known Member

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    Kafka, great choice.
     
    Paris, Oct 3, 2012
    #43
  19. skeptic-f

    skeptic-f New Member

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    I dpon't think any author should have got more than their best novel on the list. There are some extremely good novels out there that didn't make it.
     
    skeptic-f, Oct 3, 2012
    #44
  20. Margot

    Margot Account closed, not banned

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    I don't think it is anymore.. I think that passed in the early 1960s.
     
    Margot, Oct 3, 2012
    #45
  21. stig42

    stig42 New Member

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    loved enders game in jr high got in to terry pratchet myself so i would put small gods and good omens in my list ( thinck those weer done before 2000
     
    stig42, Oct 3, 2012
    #46
  22. PropagandaMachine

    PropagandaMachine New Member

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    There are some things conspicuously missing from that list.
     
    PropagandaMachine, Oct 3, 2012
    #47
  23. stig42

    stig42 New Member

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    i can relate to the desire but probably not a good thing to do
     
    stig42, Oct 3, 2012
    #48
  24. stig42

    stig42 New Member

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    i agree with lord of the rings its shaped the high fantasy genra ( i miss you spell check) not just books
     
    stig42, Oct 3, 2012
    #49
  25. custer

    custer New Member

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    Hitchhikers Guide to the Universe.

    Because I don't want every book I read to put me in a deep state of depression.

    42.
     
    custer, Oct 3, 2012
    #50
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