Poll

Who has produced the greatest body of literary art?

William Shakespeare
Dante Alighieri
Homer
The Deuteronomist
Fyodor Dostoyevsky
Leo Tolstoy
James Joyce
Plato
Marcel Proust
William Faulkner
Walt Whitman
Miguel de Cervantes
Charles Dickens
John Milton
F. Scott Fitzgerald
George Orwell
Franz Kafka
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Virginia Woolf
Edgar Allen Poe
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Author Topic: The Greatest Literary Artist  (Read 10354 times)

oldkid

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The Greatest Literary Artist
« on: June 17, 2011, 03:17:43 AM »
"Dante and Shakespeare divide the world between them-- There is no third." -T.S. Eliot

With all due respect to the great poet and critic, Eliot, he may be wrong.  Who would you consider the greatest literary artist of all time?  Or another way to ask the same question: Who has produced the greatest body of literary art?  I'm putting my best guesses up.  If you want a different choice, list it and I'll include it in the poll.

William Shakespeare-- Numerous plays and sonnets.

Dante Alighieri-- The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso), plus lesser works.

Homer-- The Illiad and the Odyssey

The Deuteronomist-- The editor of Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky-- Crime and Punishment, The Brothers Karamazov, The Idiot and other novels.

Leo Tolstoy-- War and Peace, Anna Karenina and numerous novels and essays.

James Joyce-- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Ulysses, Finnegan's Wake, and other novels and short stories.

Plato-- The Republic, Apologia, The Symposium and many other dialogues.
 
« Last Edit: June 17, 2011, 03:37:30 AM by oldkid »
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sdedalus

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #1 on: June 17, 2011, 03:54:55 AM »
1. Shakespeare
2. Joyce
3. Homer
(Proust)
4. Plato
5. Dostoyevsky
6. Dante
(Faulkner)
(Whitman)
7. Tolstoy
(Cervantes)
8. The Deuteronomist

Also worth considering: Dickens, Stendhal, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Goethe, Milton, Garcia Marquez
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'Noke

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #2 on: June 17, 2011, 03:58:23 AM »
F Scott and Orwell? Kafka?

In this case I would be more inclined to say Plato or Homer, but only cause Joyce is a big gaping hole (hi flieger!) in my literary education.
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oldkid

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #3 on: June 17, 2011, 04:07:51 AM »
I strongly considered Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Orwell.  I thought of Whitman, along with Eliot.  Kafka is an interesting choice as is Cervantes-- I wouldn't have thought that they were varied enough.  Okay, we add them all!
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

sdedalus

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #4 on: June 17, 2011, 04:10:12 AM »
I really don't think it's a contest for #1 though.  Shakespeare blows everyone away.
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'Noke

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #5 on: June 17, 2011, 04:15:18 AM »
Homer>Shakespeare.


But then again, I'm a Stones guy.
I actually consider a lot of movies to be life-changing! I take them to my heart and they melt into my personality.

oldkid

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #6 on: June 17, 2011, 04:16:02 AM »
I disagree.  I would put Plato, Dante and possibly Dostoevsky ahead of Shakespeare.

But let's mix it up.  Let's make it three votes instead of just one.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

oldkid

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #7 on: June 17, 2011, 04:19:12 AM »
Okay, that option has now disappeared for me.  And now I've erased the votes.  sdedalus, could you please re-vote?
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky

verbALs

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #8 on: June 17, 2011, 04:55:27 AM »
(someone's going to come on and say JK Rowling in a minute)....if Hammett was included it might be a problem for me 8). As it is Shakespeare somewhat overwhelms the rest of the field. Just imagine if these guys were asked the question who they would vote for, well Homer and Plato would have an obvious problem voting Shakespeare but the rest might agree.

There's a couple Russian artists on there, but Chekhov is probably ahead of those ones imho.

Perhaps a parallel 20th/21st Century poll would produce some interesting answers.
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'Noke

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Re: The Greatest Literary Artist
« Reply #9 on: June 17, 2011, 05:04:46 AM »
Do you think Shakespeare would have voted for Plato/Homer?
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