Q over D creative writing version ;) heh

[dwim]

White Fang by jack London. It's a very simple story about this wolf going from the wilds to the tame, along the way of abusive owners to dog fights until finally getting a master that was nice to him that the wolf decided to stay with him. A really great novel too.

Dano: I agree with you on Wm. Burroughs. That guy is NUTS!!! I tried reading the soft machine and I couldn't get past three chapters. I was totally lost, no plot at all even and I didn't see any reason why he even wrote that book or even bothered writing or whatever. jack at least had something to write about (ie cross country trips, buddhism, the people he knows, the happenings in his life) and it's at least all come together in the end and I can follow what he wrote. Now my fave poet is Lawrence Ferlinghetti. That guy is good.

Anyway, now a question:
Who is your favorite poet?

[jones]

there are of course many contenders. among americans: william carlos williams, frank o'hara and walt whitman spring to mind; among the english: milton, chaucer and shelley. but then there's all those russians like mayakovsky, pushkin and esenin. and what about all those basho haikus i love so much?

beyond all those guys, however, lies the extraordinary vision of william blake. yeah, i'll go with him. he's my favorite poet. next question?

who's your favorite writer who writes in english but is neither american nor british?

[Dano]

Jorge Luis Borges. Amazing stuff, wunnerful, wunnerful.

My favorite antagonist would definitely be Cirin, a character from Mothers & Daughters, a nice little serial novel that I'm sure none of you have read.

Yes, I have written hard-core porn. Not very good, but like it really needs to be good.

Who among contemporary authors do you feel has the best chance of long-term (like, centuries) success?

[Ski]

I'd have to say Neal Stephenson all his stuff is good.


What past writer do you wish was still alive and writing?

------------------
Ski
Last of the Freelance Drinkers
Greatest sword fighter in Michigan
The man in the black Trans Am
Miral's Slave

[gollum]

Richard Brautigan. although i have to say that he's one of those writers who i just knew was dead before i even read the 'about the author' part.

who's your favorite anti-hero?

-g

------------------
Sometimes i think everyone on this board is crazy. The rest of the time i'm sure.
-Dan

[Dano]

Michael Valentine Smith.

Have you ever read a book written purely from the villain's perspective?

[Branflakes]

I think one of Edgar Allen Poe's was. Telltale Heart, I think.


What's the longest book you've ever read?

------------------
Branflakes, the ninja lesbian milk getter.
The one called "brain".
I walk the path, trying not to get pulled into the weeds.
God never gives us more than we can handle.
"See that star...the one shining brighter than all the others? I know the girl who hung it there."

[erisesoteric]

The Mists of Avalon...

*side note, if anyone's read that, and MZB's other stuff, please let me know if it seems to you like she was either channeling Mists, or having it ghostwritten...*

Question:

What's your favorite version of the Arthur legend (book, play, movie, whatever...)

[dwim]

I found a Merlin comic once. I tried reading a Merlin novel but couldn't get into it. Now I like this movie called Camelot. That was good. So I'll go with that.

what's your fave legend or myth to read about?

[jones]

i tend to stick with the standards on that: arthurian, greek and norse legends. love 'em all. my favorite arthurian legend is probably tristan & iseult.

my favorite version of the arthurian legend would be (in descending order)

malory's morte d'arthur
t.h. white's the once and future king
python's holy grail

i think the longest single book i ever read is war & peace. i'd say it was worth the effort except for two things: (1) most of it didn't take much effort after page twenty or so. it's that good a story. (2) the epilogue (last 50 pages) is comprised mostly of tolstoy's meditations on history. i agree with everything he says (in a nutshell: that history is driven more by people as an aggregate than individuals), but it wasn't really worth the effort to slog through it. if you ever read war & peace, just skim or skip the epilogue. you're not missing anything.

is the closet drama (a play written to be read rather than staged) a valid form of literature? ever written a play? (closet or otherwise)

[This message has been edited by jones (edited May 04, 2000).]