Don't have an opinion on philosophers, so I'll substitute with my favorite psychologist: Albert Ellis.

Artist: Jackson Pollock

In no particular order, these are a few of my favorite authors (homage to the season):

Edgar Allan Poe and Charles Dickens,
William Shakespeare and JRR Tolkien,
Ian Fleming and Leslie Charteris,
These are a few of my favorite authors.

Alexandre Dumas and Victor Hugo,
Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asimov,
Robert A. Heinlein and Jonathan Swift,
These are a few of my favorite authors.

Arthur Conan-Doyle and Patrick O'Brian
Robert E. Howard and Frank Herbert
Orson Scott Card and Sir Walter Scott
These are a few of my favorite authors.

When the cold comes and the snow falls,
When I can work no more,
I simply look up one of my favorite authors,
And then I get lost in lore.

My list:

-Favorite Novelist: Charles Dickens
-Favorite Poet: Homer
-Favorite Playwright: William Shakespeare (Read the TITLE...Who Else?!?!) :D
-Favorite Philosopher: Friedrich Nietzsche (No surprise THERE)
-Favorite Fifth/Other: Edgar Allen Poe

I have Poe for "Other" because I really can't in good conscience place him above Homer on poetry alone, but he earns a spot for me, certainly, with his BRILLIANT short stories--I honestly think "The Fall of the House of Usher" is one of the best short stories EVER, EASILY Top 10..."The Maque of the Red Death" ranks high for me as well, and I'd go so far as to call "The Cask of Amontillado" not only his most underrated work, perhaps, but one of the most underrated short stories ever, "Usher" gets all the press, but really "Amontillado" is chock full of so many ideas and, of course, some of the best Gothic imagery and situations Poe is renowned for, and the end is positively chilling, and the kicker for me to name Poe here is his invention of the character Auguste Dupin, himself a great detective, but also one who would ignite the genre and lead to the best and most infamous character in that genre, a character who, along with Hamlet, Macbeth, and Sir gawain I identify with as much as anyone in all of literature, the great Sherlock Holmes.

I seriously considered Mark Twain for the Novelist spot, as I DO admittedly like "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" a bit better than any of Dickens' works, but with "Great Expectations" and "A Christmas Carol" great works (the latter seems hokey nowadays with a million TV knockoffs, but alone and by itself the book can actually carry a few interesting themes and even get a bit Gothic and almost nihilistic at times, it can get so bleak) and "A Tale of Two Cities" is a masterpiece, albeit one I actually didn't enjoy too much (though I DIDN'T really do it justice and rushed for class, so one day I'll go back and likely find it a LOT better than how I left it) and many more, so good quality and quantity wins here for me, as Twain, after "Huck," really doesn't have anything as powerful left in the canon, with "Tom" really just being fun, albeit glorious fun...Stephen Crane's "The Red Badge of Courage" is one I also look fondly on, but one novel alone can't win the spot for me here...I HAVE YET to read either Dyostoyevsky or Tolstoy (appologies to, well, tolstoy, lol); I know of their work and basic themes, but that is THE largest gap in my repetoire, really, one I hope to rectify soon, as their books are expensive but, now that I work at Barnes and Nobles and get a discount, hopefully I'll be able to read them soon, and we'll see if Mr. Dickens keeps his place after THAT...

Poet was tricky as I just couldn't name someone on the strength of one great poem, there are too many "one great poems" to do that with, and too many poets--E.E. Cummings, Poe, Robert Frost, Lord Tennyson, Dante, Milton, Spenser...they all have many great poems, and yet somehow I couldn't quite see one break through enough to pick them (and while it's still early on, I must admit that Milton, whom I am currently reading, isn't endearing himself to me early on, I LOVE density and depth in writing but it needs to be ACCESIBLE to an extent, and he seems to reference to the point its so deep I'm practically drowning in footnotes, even more so than with Dante or Shakespeare) and I obviously couldn't pick Shakespeare again, that'd just be absurd and a case of Bard-olotry. So I took Homer, with the two epics that founded so much of Western Literature (you could make an argument that between the two of them he DOES found Western Literature, in a way)...an additional shout-out to T.S. Eliot, whom I couldn't quite place here but DO like, "The Waste Land" is BRILLIANT, I'll unabashedly proclaim it here to be the Best Poem of the 20th Century, and Eliot the best poet...and if anyone ever reads this I'm sure that will draw plenty of criticism, but really, the man WS an incredible author and poet, I think there's some weight to that.

Playwright and Philosopher--If you didn't know who I'd pick, you've never read one of my posts...and, as a result, still likely retain some mental health. ;)

+1 Draug, LOL...read and liked most of those fellows

A Cask of Amontillado and The Gold Bug are Poe's best short stories while Usher is his masterpiece.

Sorry, but Ancient Mariner >> Odyssey.

And A Tale of Two Cities is truly Dickens' greatest work, but Oliver Twist, A Christmas Carol (the only rendition comes close to the book is Patrick Stewart's one man audio play and of course, his TV performance) and Bleak House.

I wanted to get Homer in my little seasonal homage but needed to find three more long named and two more short named authors who I felt fit the list and, honestly, it's too late for me to think of any.

Neal Stephenson.

@Draugnar: I forgot poor Oliver! Oh well, its not like he's not used to being orphaned... ;)

@abgemacht:

No.

I usually have a better and more in-depth argument for my reasoning, but really...I honestly can't see the case here, admittedly this IS subjective, totally, so there's not a right or wrong, but for whatever Ancient Mariner might be, calling it better than The Odyssey almost strikes me as saying Daniel Craig was a better James Bond than Sean Connery--he might have had his good points (liked him in CR, hated him in QOS, so he broke even as a Bond for me, not bad, not great) but there are just some classics that go beyond being #1, they define and almost invent the genre.

Connery MADE Bond...and The Odyssey really MAKES every Western travel tale afterward, in some fashion or another...maybe "makes" is too strong a word, but they do seem to stem from it (and I'll be honest--The Odyssey was always deep enough for me while retaining structural and stylistic flair and telling a great story with a great protagonist and interesting ideas and people and places and was ALWAYS accessible in some way, it never felt like it dragged...Anceint Mariner practically had "DRAG" written all over it in places, and really wasn't nearly as memorable for me.)

I also enjoy T.H. White (The Book of Merlin and The Once and Future King are incredible Arthurian legend novels), Mark Frost (The List of 7 and The 6 Messiahs), Douglas Adams, Piers Anthony (Incarnations of Immortality is one of the most original fantasy peices you'll ever read), Barbra Hambly (read her Darwath Trilogy), early Terry Brooks (the first three Shannara novels), Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, and a lesser known author named Andrew J. Offut who wrote a fun novel called The Galactic Rejects.

Oliver! was the musical. Oliver Twist was the book.

"calling it better than The Odyssey almost strikes me as saying Daniel Craig was a better James Bond than Sean Connery"

Epic Argument Fail

The Ancient Mariner has a more sympathetic character, a more relateable story, and better prose.

I also forgot Gordon R. Dickson and Ursula LeGuin

I can't believe Tolstoy isn't on here. I'm in the middle of War and Peace right now and am fascinated by it. I would say Dickens would come after him on my list, as well as Crane. F.Scott Fitzgerald was pretty good too, but doesn't make it into the top for me

A more sympathetic character than a man who didn't want to go to a war to start with, got pulled into it for many years, and then found himself struggling to cope with the strange sights of things, and all he wants is his old life and old wife back?

A more relatable story than that of a man struggling against all odds to make it home to his beloved wife, who constantly tries to stay true to him while being berrated by suitors, having to wonder every day if she should just quit and marry again and forget Odysseus and be happy or stick it out and hope some more?

Better prose than the Homerian meter that's not only classic but produced some of the most memorable rythythmic pacings of that era, complete with some of the most memorable moments (Odysseus between the whirlpool and sea monster, "a rock and a hard place," and his little adventure with the cyclops Polyphemus and "My name is Nobody" and his Rambo-mowing down of the suitors once home?)



Alright, abgemacht, tell me, then--what's Anceint Mariner have to compare with one of the greatest heroes in one of the greatest stories (two, in fact, counting The Iliad) writen by one of the greatest writers in history (T.S. Eliot stated he felt, poetry-wise, there was Shakespeare and Dante--and then everyone else; I'd say he missed it by one and that ti's Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, and then everyone else...give the poor blind man his due!)

;)

obi, I'm still waiting for you to bother to reply to my comment on art from a couple of weeks ago.

...

I REALLY was trying to move on from that, since we seemed at an impassse and no one would budge either way...what was it, I'll answer--but really I don't want to start a second thread on the subject... ;)

"Sorry, but Ancient Mariner >> Odyssey."

+1 abgemacht, the Ancient Mariner is one of my favorite reads of all time.

My favourite of Poe's is The Purloined Letter. BUT...
Short Stories: Jorge Luis Borges did Poe proud.
Novel: Dostoyevsky. Kafka. Josef Conrad (thanks for correcting my spelling Obi). B. Traven. Of the living, Coetzee and Salman Rushdie impress me most. The Confederacy of Dunces is the book that made me laugh the hardest.
Philosopher: Nietzsche, Mikhail Bakunin, Georges Bataille, Michel Foucault
Playwright: Beckett. Of course I love Shakespeare, but I think the 20th century was the real golden age of theatre.
Poet: I like the choice of Homer, it's pretty cool when an art form practically starts at its pinnacle. But I could make a case for 50 others.

For all the Poe fans: I just wanted to throw in my recommendation of his only full-length novel, "The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket". It's often overlooked and very, very solid.

@mcbry:

The golden age of theatre ws the 20th Century?

I REALLY don't agree with that...Beckett and Tom Stoppard were great, and for just "fun" plays Sondheim and Rogers/Hammerstein were great as well.

But theatre took such a blow in that century...what with radio and TV (and now the Internet and YouTube) taking away its audience and, too, its writers, to an extent...how?



Thomas Kyd, Thomas Decker, Moliere, Christopher Marlowe, and, of course, a fellow by the name of Shakespeare...the 1500s-early 1600s seem to have a great case...

Even granting the American titans that ARE Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller, as well as Ianesco, that's a pretty hard group to top, above; Shakespeare ALONE commands tremendous weight, but Marloe and Kyd, too, have some pull, and Moliere is an imprtant figure in Western Comedy...

Or the Greeks, Sophocles and Euripides and Aeschyclus and Aeristophanes...

Some good figures in the 20th Century--but I don't think they have the victory here.

@Obi:
My arguments are the same but my conclusion is different. You said yourself, but not in as many words, that Shakespeare alone is pulling the wagon for the 16th century, and the concessions he had to make in his time for the now hot now cold support for theatre from the ruling class. At times he was reduced to writing pure propaganda for the contemporary English regime, patriotic odes. Shakespeare might get the nod, in terms of sheer variety of characters, tones, and attitudes, but his work was often impure due to sacrifices he had to make for the sake of continuing his art. Hamlet is not my favourite, it has a great psychological depth and Hamlet is possibly the first Romantic anti-hero well before his time (he was certainly taken for such by the Romantics.) My preference is for Macbeth, I think the most revolutionary of his plays, but rarely performed (there is only reference to its performance in Shakespeare's own time), with a reputation for being "cursed", a curious fact, to say the least.

I should add I'm really considering the late 19th century and properly the first half of the 20th. For me, the destruction of the willing suspension of disbelief is critical to allowing the art-form to come into its own. Also, the death of the cohesive narrative, the introduction of the absurd... Perhaps it was in part because of the advent, popularization and commercialization of film that theatre became the hotbed of revolution and the proper reserve of intellectuals that it was, most of the ideas expressed therein were considered too hard to digest for a popular film audience. But to be fair, early film which was contemporary with the playwrights I'm most interested in was I think just as revolutionary. Starting with Buchner's Woyzeck (early 19th century, it was an aberration so far ahead of it's time, it properly belongs in the 20th), there are many serious contributions to add to your list: Ibsen, Shaw, Pirandello, Brecht, O'Neill to name a few more.
Of course I like the Greek tragedies, particularly as seen through the lens of Neitzsche's the Birth of Tragedy.

I should add that it's true that Joe McCarthy despite finally falling into disgrace, successfully and almost single-handedly killed American film and theatre for decades. Perhaps it's unfair to put all the blame on him, he was probably just a sign of the times, and received broad support from the society.

Novellist is tricky, because though I do follow certain authors, I tend to prefer specific novels or series and don't necessarily have favourite writers. But worth mentioning are Ursula le Guin, Philip Pullman and Kazuo Ishiguro.

Choosing a poet is again very difficult. I like Milton and Keats though.

I'm not as familiar with plays on the whole, but I can comfortably say my favourite playwright is Tom Stoppard. Otherwise, I also enjoy Gregory Burke.

I really don't feel knowledgable enough to choose a favourite philosopher. Philosophy interests me greatly, but in terms of looking into particular works and thinkers, I just don't know enough.

I'm sorry I haven't got time to read the entire thread, but I think you are forgetting that you can read The Ancient Mariner in the original, whereas all we got of Homer are translations (most of us, anyway).

In my very humble opinion Homer is the greatest writer of all time. Altough I haven't yet read the Ancient Mariner (going to do it asap).

Novelist: I want to say Gabriel Garcia Marquez, but if I'm honest I'd say Ursula LeGuin.
Short Stories: Borges.
Playwright: Harold Pinter.
Philosopher: Kierkegaard.
Poet: Chaucer. Mostly because I don't really read poetry, but I enjoyed the Canterbury Tales.

@mcbry: OK, I can definitely see your case for the 19th-early 20th Century theatre as having the best writers...and actually, upon review, I think I'll have to agree--taking roughtly 1850-1950 (before movies took over totally and TV dealt the final blow) there really ARE som many incredible playwrights--Oscar Wilde, Henrik Ibsen, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Samuel Beckett, and so on--that...yeah, it beats Shakespeare's era. Not the man, I'll hold to my guns until the end that he's the greatest writer ever, and so certainly the greatest playwright ever--heck, even that "propoganda" was pretty good at times...the Henriad IS a great arc of four plays, Richard III is a great play...and then aside from the propoganda-esque Histories he has so many gems that it's almost absurd...I still say Hamlet is better than Macbeth, as its length allows for greater depth and the titular character is a bit more introspecitve, but as I have a deep love for both heroes and bpoth plays and would rank the "to be or not to be" and "tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow" monologues side by side, yeah, a matter of taste.

But in terms of an overall golden age, Shakespeare was the Godlen Man, but 1850-1950 (roughly) would certainly be the Golden Age of Theatre, good call.



@pastoralan:

Hmmm, interesting choice in Kierkegaard (though not too surprising, given your username, lol.)

I'm reading "Fear and Trembling" right now, actually, and I have to say it's met and exceeded my expectations...I generally don't agree with defenses of the "better to have faith than ___" stance, but Kierkegaard's argument and his Knight of Faith are rather compelling...

Soren Kierkegaard--the Good Existentialist Cop to Nietzsche's Bad Existentialist Cop!

;)