Bigthink - Idea Comments Feed

Comment on: What's in your personal literary canon?

Bigthink — Mon, 26 May 2008 01:31:51 +0100

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, because it shows what it takes to make a person evil and also it damns people who think they have a message but " when that time for final pronouncement" comes, they don't have anything to say.

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky, one of the best novels written by anyone, ever, it shows human nature for what it is, the beautiful and the ugly.

Fear and Loathing Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, the perfect manifesto from a man who was to weird to live and to rare to die.

Comment on: What's in your personal literary canon?

Bigthink — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:20:29 +0100

I have always been partial to Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. It is very well written and has many frightening observations on the fascist governments of past and present.

Comment on: What's in your personal literary canon?

Bigthink — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 08:25:11 +0100

Sellouts, the sixth volume in a series of comic books called POWERS is an all-time favorite. it's about an omnipotent superhero who decides that we as humans are frustratingly juxtaposed in our struggle for peace by means of force, and so begins destroying the world's most controversial places, he wipes the gaza strip off the map, vaporizes baghdad and burns down the vatican, upon confrontation, the superhero is asked too stop, and when he questions the plea, he is told "You're not God." to which he replies telepathically: "...are you sure?"

besides that brilliant story, another personal favorite moment of the POWERS library is a ten page conversation between Albert Einstein and a Superhero, in the backalley of a seedy bar in new york. the superhero comes to Einstein, having seen his name in the paper, to ask if this man has any clue why he has super powers.

the philosiphy and depth of the superhero archetypes fascinates me, there is no end to the brilliance of this, the most basic, infantile genre of storytelling.

Comment on: What's in your personal literary canon?

Bigthink — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:50:20 +0100

The Master and Margarita. Its my personal bible. Bulgakov started writing the novel in 1928 and the work was completed by his wife during 1940-1941.

It is a complete masterpiece.

Comment on: What's in your personal literary canon?

Bigthink — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:28:17 +0100

Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" -- it's worth rereading every so often for the perspective it offers on what struggle truly is...