So, who were they salvationers? Note I say greatest, not best or most influential. Take one, the other, or both into account when making your list, doesn't matter.
1.I am not going to provide categories for nomination. The only criteria for inclusion is that the individual had at least one work of prose published from 1900-2000 during the authors life time. YES THIS DOES MEAN THAT YOU CAN INCLUDE AMBROSE BIERCE AND MARK TWAIN. I personally would put both in my top 10, but did not as I view them as 19th rather than 20th century authors and that list waits for another day...
2. I will be tallying the top 10 individuals with the most votes.
3.While it would be interesting to do so, you are not required to provide background for your list or reasoning.
4.For the purposes of tallying the lists, the order that you list individuals in does not matter. This is because given the sheer number of authors active worldwide in the years 1900-2000.
5.Related to point number 4, do not assume that any other user is neccesary listing authors in order of preference, I will not as I find it too difficult to make comparisons across genres and between people who I think merit inclusion for different reasons.
6.MOST IMPORTANTLY this thread is not a debate about who was the best, this is a place to let it be known who you think is the best. After the thread has received what I deem an appropriate number of responses, I will post our communal top 10 list for debate and discussion in a new thread.
EDITE NOTE-I came back to check this thread after a few days and I realize that I missposted my list (original idea was for a top 15 and I just wrote the first 10 names on the list )
William Gibson
JRR Tolkien
Chuck Palahniuk
George Orwell
HP Lovecraft
Robert E Howard
Niel Gaiman
Ernest Hemingway
Vladimir Nabakov
Philip K Dick
I definitely feel Chuck Palahniuk must be there somewhere in the list. Hopefully in the very last place, but he damn deserves it. I actually hate many of his views and his cynical opinions of life and people, but the guy is a freaking genius! And influential enough to warrant a spot on the list.
It shall be extremely hard to achieve consensus. Also, I would definately kick JK Rowling straight off the list. Popular culture should not be considered great.
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[I was permabanned and all I got to show for it was .... well, nothing.]
1. F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. Samuel Beckett
3. William Faulker
4. Agatha Christie
5. Arthur Miller
6. Kurt Vonnegut
7. Cormac McCarthy
8. Philip Roth
9. Albert Camus
10. Tom Wolfe (mostly for the suit)
Hakuri Murakami
Kurt Vonnegut
J.D. Salinger
Milan Kundera
George Orwell
J. R. R. Tolkien
Vladimir Nabokov
James Joyce
Chuck Palahniuk
Philip K Dick
Haruki Murakami isn't very well known in America, but he is a truly brilliant Japanese writer. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles is probably my favorite of his works.
It's very difficult to do a top ten for this though. There are people who I should mention, like Fitzgerald, but I simply don't have enough room, and personal preference got the better of me.
Franz Kafka
Kurt Vonnegut
J.D. Salinger
J.R.R Tolkien
Agatha Christie
F. Scott Fitzgerald
George Orwell
Ernest Hemingway
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Leo Tolstoy
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
HP Lovecraft and JRR are very influential (more or less generating a genre a peice) but they are terrible authors (especially the later).
Also Chuck P. and JK Rowling (and remember that only the first 3 books were published before 2000) are the watered down versions of Kurt Vonnegut and every fantasy writer ever respectfully.
Oh, not a debate thread yet? Here's my list then:
William Faulkner
Neil Gaiman
James Joyce
Alan Moore
Kurt Vonnegut
Franz Kafka
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (good call, Amadi)
George Orwell
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stephen King
--
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Listen to my M:tG flavor Podcast: Story Circle! (Newest episode is all about Innistrad previews.)
George RR Martin
James Clavell
CS Lewis
Richard Matheson
George Orwell Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Harper Lee
JD Salinger
Ray Bradbury
John Steinbeck
Hmm... I am probably going to be booed or such for this, but I always found Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their ilk to be some of the worst authors I have ever read, in both story quality and writing style, which is why you wouldn't find them on my list. Also some authors I either haven't read or could never make it through one of their books. Also I do include how enjoyable their story and plots are when taking into account writing talent as I feel that is a necessary when making a list like this. Also I feel weird that I don't really have any non-American except Garcia and Lewis, but the 20th century is probably my least read century of the past 500 years.
No order:
Ray Bradbury
George Orwell
Leo Tolstoy
Stephen King
J.R.R. Tolkien
Ernest Hemingway
William Golding
Hunter S. Thompson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
C.S Lewis
I wouldn't feel comfortable until this was more like, top 30 though. :\
No order:
Ray Bradbury
George Orwell
Leo Tolstoy Stephen King
J.R.R. Tolkien
Ernest Hemingway
William Golding
Hunter S. Thompson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
C.S Lewis
How one values Stephen King above Kafka is beyond me. Infact I believe it's beyond this universe.. Are you sure you are not confusing names here, or if you really read some of Stephen King's books, and not some fanfiction that happened to bear his name?
They do not make you fear, they do not make you afraid, they don't make you scared. They don't make you think or feel sad, either. Only feeling they make you feel is boredom. I give that they are awesome to read when you need to get asleep fast. And when you have to study to exams. Say to yourself that you either read one of his books or study, and studying seems to be an awesome pasttime.
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The Sage is occupied with the unspoken
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
1. Garth Nix
2. Henry David Thoreau
3. Anne Rice
4. Chuck Palainuck
5. Freidrich Nietzche
6. MIkhail Bolgakov
7. Nickolai Gogol
8. James Rollins
9. George Orwell
10. Ari Marmell ( I think he has great potential.)
First off, under no circumstances is Tom Stoppard to be absent from any list. All lists without Tom Stoppard are automatic fail. To the point where you should slap yourself for not putting him down.
The following are givens:
Tom Stoppard
George Orwell
Tennessee Williams
From there, I'm going to go with:
Fitzgerald
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Because In a Grove is one of the most brilliant things ever and no one will convince me otherwise)
From there it gets difficult.
I haven't read Faulkner, Woolf or any of Joyce's full novels so I cannot comment.
Hmm... I am probably going to be booed or such for this, but I always found Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their ilk to be some of the worst authors I have ever read, in both story quality and writing style, which is why you wouldn't find them on my list.
No, I will back you on Hemingway until the end. Hemingway is garbage. How he convinced people he was literature I will never know.
But Fitzgerald? Really? No love for The Great Gatsby?
@Highroller: What's the problem with Alan Moore, now? He more or less single handedly brought comic books up from a pop culture curiosity into a literature all their own. Don't understand how he earns six facepalms.
Philip K. Dick isn't anyone to sneeze at either.
--
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Listen to my M:tG flavor Podcast: Story Circle! (Newest episode is all about Innistrad previews.)
1.I am not going to provide categories for nomination. The only criteria for inclusion is that the individual had at least one work of prose published from 1900-2000 during the authors life time. YES THIS DOES MEAN THAT YOU CAN INCLUDE AMBROSE BIERCE AND MARK TWAIN. I personally would put both in my top 10, but did not as I view them as 19th rather than 20th century authors and that list waits for another day...
2. I will be tallying the top 10 individuals with the most votes.
3.While it would be interesting to do so, you are not required to provide background for your list or reasoning.
4.For the purposes of tallying the lists, the order that you list individuals in does not matter. This is because given the sheer number of authors active worldwide in the years 1900-2000.
5.Related to point number 4, do not assume that any other user is neccesary listing authors in order of preference, I will not as I find it too difficult to make comparisons across genres and between people who I think merit inclusion for different reasons.
6.MOST IMPORTANTLY this thread is not a debate about who was the best, this is a place to let it be known who you think is the best. After the thread has received what I deem an appropriate number of responses, I will post our communal top 10 list for debate and discussion in a new thread.
EDITE NOTE-I came back to check this thread after a few days and I realize that I missposted my list (original idea was for a top 15 and I just wrote the first 10 names on the list )
William Gibson
JRR Tolkien
Chuck Palahniuk
George Orwell
HP Lovecraft
Robert E Howard
Niel Gaiman
Ernest Hemingway
Vladimir Nabakov
Philip K Dick
"That is not dead which can eternal lie, And with strange aeons even death may die."
- H.P. Lovecraft
And, I do like your list.
I like 4/4s for 7.
2. Samuel Beckett
3. William Faulker
4. Agatha Christie
5. Arthur Miller
6. Kurt Vonnegut
7. Cormac McCarthy
8. Philip Roth
9. Albert Camus
10. Tom Wolfe (mostly for the suit)
Kurt Vonnegut
J.D. Salinger
Milan Kundera
George Orwell
J. R. R. Tolkien
Vladimir Nabokov
James Joyce
Chuck Palahniuk
Philip K Dick
Haruki Murakami isn't very well known in America, but he is a truly brilliant Japanese writer. The Wind Up Bird Chronicles is probably my favorite of his works.
It's very difficult to do a top ten for this though. There are people who I should mention, like Fitzgerald, but I simply don't have enough room, and personal preference got the better of me.
Franz Kafka
Kurt Vonnegut
J.D. Salinger
J.R.R Tolkien
Agatha Christie
F. Scott Fitzgerald
George Orwell
Ernest Hemingway
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Leo Tolstoy
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
HP Lovecraft and JRR are very influential (more or less generating a genre a peice) but they are terrible authors (especially the later).
Also Chuck P. and JK Rowling (and remember that only the first 3 books were published before 2000) are the watered down versions of Kurt Vonnegut and every fantasy writer ever respectfully.
Oh, not a debate thread yet? Here's my list then:
William Faulkner
Neil Gaiman
James Joyce
Alan Moore
Kurt Vonnegut
Franz Kafka
Gabriel Garcia Marquez (good call, Amadi)
George Orwell
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Stephen King
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
George RR Martin
James Clavell
CS Lewis
Richard Matheson
George Orwell
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Harper Lee
JD Salinger
Ray Bradbury
John Steinbeck
Hmm... I am probably going to be booed or such for this, but I always found Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and their ilk to be some of the worst authors I have ever read, in both story quality and writing style, which is why you wouldn't find them on my list. Also some authors I either haven't read or could never make it through one of their books. Also I do include how enjoyable their story and plots are when taking into account writing talent as I feel that is a necessary when making a list like this. Also I feel weird that I don't really have any non-American except Garcia and Lewis, but the 20th century is probably my least read century of the past 500 years.
Thanks to the [Æther] shop for the sig!
Ray Bradbury
George Orwell
Leo Tolstoy
Stephen King
J.R.R. Tolkien
Ernest Hemingway
William Golding
Hunter S. Thompson
F. Scott Fitzgerald
C.S Lewis
I wouldn't feel comfortable until this was more like, top 30 though. :\
Art Page
Alters for sale
The Psalmist
Homer
...oh, did you mean published for the first time from 1900-2000?
Mark Twain!
Jorge Luis Borges
Kurt Vonnegut
Franz Kafka
Harper Lee
Rudyard Kipling
Bertrand Russell
Winston Churchill
Umberto Eco
Susanna Clarke
Honorable mention: Nietzsche (The Will to Power was published posthumously in 1901)
candidus inperti; si nil, his utere mecum.
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
How one values Stephen King above Kafka is beyond me. Infact I believe it's beyond this universe.. Are you sure you are not confusing names here, or if you really read some of Stephen King's books, and not some fanfiction that happened to bear his name?
They do not make you fear, they do not make you afraid, they don't make you scared. They don't make you think or feel sad, either. Only feeling they make you feel is boredom. I give that they are awesome to read when you need to get asleep fast. And when you have to study to exams. Say to yourself that you either read one of his books or study, and studying seems to be an awesome pasttime.
and acts without effort.
Teaching without verbosity,
producing without possessing,
creating without regard to result,
claiming nothing,
the Sage has nothing to lose.
My list, in no particular order:
Gabriel García Márquez
José Saramago
Jostein Gaarder
JK Rowling
Agatha Christie
Thomas Mann
J.R.R. Tolkien
Franz Kafka
Charles Bukowski
George Orwell
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1. Garth Nix
2. Henry David Thoreau
3. Anne Rice
4. Chuck Palainuck
5. Freidrich Nietzche
6. MIkhail Bolgakov
7. Nickolai Gogol
8. James Rollins
9. George Orwell
10. Ari Marmell ( I think he has great potential.)
1. Joseph Heller
J.R.R. Tolkien
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Tom Stoppard
William Faulkner
Hunter S. Thompson
Cormac McCarthy
James Joyce
J.D. Salinger
:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
No. No. No. No. No. No.
:facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm::facepalm:
Tell me this is a joke.
First off, under no circumstances is Tom Stoppard to be absent from any list. All lists without Tom Stoppard are automatic fail. To the point where you should slap yourself for not putting him down.
The following are givens:
Tom Stoppard
George Orwell
Tennessee Williams
From there, I'm going to go with:
Fitzgerald
Ryūnosuke Akutagawa (Because In a Grove is one of the most brilliant things ever and no one will convince me otherwise)
From there it gets difficult.
I haven't read Faulkner, Woolf or any of Joyce's full novels so I cannot comment.
No, I will back you on Hemingway until the end. Hemingway is garbage. How he convinced people he was literature I will never know.
But Fitzgerald? Really? No love for The Great Gatsby?
Philip K. Dick isn't anyone to sneeze at either.
--
Winner of the 2nd Design Survivor Contest
Creator of the Vorthos Card Contest
Winner of 12th and the 18th Short Story Contests
Creator of the Vs. Tournament.
--Runner of the Superhero Vs. Tounrament
--Runner of the Villian Vs. Tournament.
only relevant author ever
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Seriously thogh, I havent seen anyone mention Joseph Heller, catch-22 is enough to put him in the top ten.