Also, I vote Kafka

Kefka

http://www.gamecareerguide.com/db_area/images/item_images/120717/kefka.jpg

Kafka.

I was so looking forward to voting against Kafka....and then I realized who the competition was.

Kafka is surreal but annoying (unlike Salvador Dali, who's surreal but artistic and cool). Dickinson's is also annoying much of the time and (for the same reason) is as overrated as G.M. Hopkins. Nevertheless, there's more happiness and joy in her (and Hopkins) and less a feeling of self-pity than in Kafka. So............

Dickinson.

^By conscious choice, not an English major.

Wait, Thucy, is not wanting your work published and then having it published posthumously because it's just too damn good something you like in an author?

#imgoingtomakeliterallyeverythingaboutvergil #alsofuckthucy

Vergil didn't exist Lol

No, that's Homer.

Also Lao Tzu. Hell, even Shakespeare's questionable.

Kafka: 9
Dickinson: 3

And it depends on what you mean by "Shakespeare"--

The actor existed...has a tomb and everything...

Whether or not you believe he was the one who wrote his plays (I personally don't mind saying that he did, the Authorship Question's the least interesting one to me, and unless anything definitive ever comes up, it's always going to be "Most Interesting Conspiracy Theory" vs. Just Traditionally Saying Shakespeare...and I'll take the man from Stratford. Other actors became writers, and I've yet to find one argument for Bacon, Oxford, or Marlowe that even begins to become persuasive enough for me to seriously consider caring and thinking it was someone else. Says Shakespeare on the page, to me, Shakespeare = man on the page, ergo, he's Shakespeare to me.)

But even if it was someone else...

All three of those candidates--Bacon, Oxford, and Marlowe--all are confirmed to have existed, obviously...

So Shakespeare's not really questionable the same way Homer is.

We KNOW all four of those men existed, it's just a question of who wrote the plays, and one that can't be solved barring something truly Earth-shattering, so Shakespeare it is.

By contrast, we have no tomb or signatures or any such thing for Homer...which is fine, that's to be expected. I think there probably was a Homer, in the same way I think there was probably a Jesus--and both just had their stories/sayings exaggerated a wee bit by a devoted fan following afterward. ;)

Also, more importantly, and very sadly...

El Maestro es morte. :/

Probably bad Spanish, but oh well...just makes Marquez's use of the language all the more impressive...I said it before and I meant it--

I really did consider him to be the Greatest Living Author. We've lost a giant today.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/17/world/americas/gabriel-garcia-marquez-dies/

So, 9-3, Kafka ties the highest score yet, and, for once, wins The Trial.

how many votes did Kefka get

Not as many as you...but then, who does?

Obi, I was joking. I firmly believe that he probably existed.

Face it, guys: Homer didn't exist. He's a fictional character, just like the rest of the Simpsons.

Snicker.

Today's match-up:

Peter Pan creator J.M. Barrie vs. 19th Century Hippie Henry David Thoreau :p

Seriously? Thoreau's poetry easily beats Barrie.

I vote Thoreau.

Peter Pan was pretty good. It's no Fantastic Mr Fox, but quite enjoyable nonetheless. I can see no possible reason for me ever buying any of Thoreau's work though.

Barrie it is.

^ Judging by the poetry I presume? (/s)

Nope. It's mostly based on me never having heard of him before today, and a brief glance at his wikipedia page doesn't inspire further investigation.

Thoreau all the way.

Yeah, I don't like Thoreau. Barrie.

Barrie is, of course, most famous for Peter Pan, which is a wonderful work. I would encourage people to explore some of his other stuff, though -- he was considered one of the leading English writers, and the leading playwright, of his day for most of his career.

Here is a link to a very unimportant but quite enjoyable and short humorous chapter from very early in his career: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/18934/18934-h/18934-h.htm#h2HCH0012

Here is one of Barrie's better plays. I highly encourage reading even a little of it. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4021/4021-h/4021-h.htm

And of course, "that terrible masterpiece," Peter Pan itself. Here is the play, with its dedication 25 years later to the five adopted sons (all brothers) who inspired the story while their parents were still alive: http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300081h.html ; here is the novel, written later. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/26654/26654-h/26654-h.htm

I may post more, later, with excerpts. For now I must run, though.

I vote for Barrie.

Barrie.

Barrie: 4
Thoreau: 3

Barrie: 4
Thoreau: 2