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2012-09-23 08:31 3002341 Anonymous (300pxStephenfry.jpg 300x375 25kB)
WHY STEPHEN WHYYYYYY!??
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=fvwp&v=wL_rXp-T4tc&NR=1
2 min later 3002345 Anonymous (1340993281402.png 222x211 3kB)
>implying Ulysses is not the most perfectly written book in the English language
2 min later 3002346 Anonymous
Should I read Ulysses?
3 min later 3002348 Anonymous
Thumbs up to him.
5 min later 3002352 Anonymous
It's his favorite book and he can't remember the closing line?
6 min later 3002355 Anonymous
Funny, I watched this literally just a moment ago. I suppose you found it through The James Joyce/Hemingway video also linked here?
6 min later 3002359 Anonymous
>>3002345
It is not. (It's probably not even in the top 15.)
7 min later 3002363 Anonymous
>>3002346
Do you want to?
14 min later 3002383 Anonymous
>>3002355
Yes.
20 min later 3002392 Anonymous
So Ulysses is Odyssey fan fiction?
23 min later 3002402 Anonymous
>>3002392
*zing*
Take that 50 shades of grey haters
42 min later 3002470 Anonymous
Not having read Ulysses(or have much of a clue what it's about). What's so bad about this?
46 min later 3002485 Anonymous
>>3002392
Self-published Odyssey fanfic, actually.
Joyce is lower on the totem pole than E. L. James.
52 min later 3002499 Anonymous
>>3002359
What are the top 15 most perfectly written books in the english language?
53 min later 3002504 Anonymous
>>3002499
> What are the top 15 most perfectly written books in the english language?
That depends, of course.
54 min later 3002511 Anonymous
>>3002504
let's hear your personal favourites
56 min later 3002516 Anonymous
>>3002504
You're obfuscating.
>it's not
>depends
Confirmed for poseur
1 hours later 3002552 Anonymous
stephen fry is the ultimate spack
1 hours later 3002560 Anonymous
>>3002552
>spack
Am I in a time warp or something
1 hours later 3002567 Anonymous
what is OP mad about? Stephen Fry turns out to be smarter than he lets on.
1 hours later 3002570 Anonymous
>>3002552
yeah he's a total flid
1 hours later 3002571 Anonymous
>>3002504
>> What are the top 15 most perfectly written books in the english language?
1. Lolita
2. Gravity's Rainbow
3. Portrait of the Artist
4. The Great Gatsby
5. Bonfire of the vanities
6. Crying of lot 49
7. Catch 22
8. Catcher in the Rye
9. Fear and Loathing
10. LoTR
Ulysses would probably make the next five.
1 hours later 3002574 Anonymous
>>3002570
Shut it you fucking mong. Steve's mega.
1 hours later 3002578 Anonymous
>>3002571
This is what 15 year olds actually think.
1 hours later 3002583 Anonymous
>>3002571
>F&LILV
>LOTR
wow
1 hours later 3002584 Anonymous
>>3002571
I'm laughing so hard right now. Please delete your post before I crack a rib.
1 hours later 3002608 Anonymous
>>3002571
So ... apparently reading Gravity's Rainbow is some kind of rite-of-passage, eh? If I read it I get my union card and am entitled to call myself a Smart Person? (Saying this because it comes up a LOT, here and elsewhere, in just such a context - or so it seems to me.)
1 hours later 3002612 Anonymous
>>3002571
> What are the top 15 most perfectly written books in the english language?
1. Fear and Loathing
2. Naked Lunch
3. On the Road
4. Hells Angels
5. Electric kool aid acid test
6. Cities of the red night
7. Dharma bums
8. The Rum Diary
9. One Flew over the cuckoos nest
10. Lonesome Traveller
1 hours later 3002617 Anonymous
>>3002571
trolololol
the only _great_ book listed there is the one that's also written by joyce.
1 hours later 3002622 Anonymous (HST-4.jpg 319x490 22kB)
>>3002612
1 hours later 3002625 Anonymous
>>3002608
No, it's just a damn good book. Don't turn this into something about "hipsters" or whatever.
1 hours later 3002632 Anonymous (vomit.gif 100x95 7kB)
>>3002612
>the beats
1 hours later 3002643 Anonymous
>>3002625
Understood, but I"ve never met anyone in RL who's read it who isn't a snobbish hipster and doesn't have the attitude I described. /lit/ may be different, and/or that may just be the tone of the local hipsterism, but ... there it is.
1 hours later 3002646 Anonymous
>>3002608
Gravity's Rainbows is regarded as one of the best books because it is so incredibly intricate, yet beautify written. Pynchon has that ability to write magnificent paragraph-long sentences that aren't overbearing, but reflect exactly what needs to be said and make your jaw drop with awe.
I agree with Lolita being first too. This talent of Pynchons is also claimed by Nabokov But Nabokov does it better When I read Lolita, I kept having to re-read it because I needed to experience certain sentences again. With Ulysses, I had to skip parts because it became tedious.
1 hours later 3002660 Anonymous
Can you explain what's wrong with ulysses? and why Fry is wrong to cite it as his favourite?
Thanks
1 hours later 3002672 Anonymous
>>3002341
>mfw I now read that Stephen Fry is suffering from bipolar disorder, gay, sat in prison for 3 months for credit card fraud and his life partner is Hugh Laurie
I think my world just collapsed
1 hours later 3002673 Anonymous (scroob.jpg 324x324 32kB)
>Thou shalt not question Stephen Fry.
1 hours later 3002677 Anonymous
>>3002672
> life partner is Hugh Laurie
Not quite, Mr. Ship.
They used to work together is all.
1 hours later 3002697 Anonymous
>>3002672
He was also a cokehead.
1 hours later 3002701 Anonymous
>>3002697
We've all been cokeheads, tell me something shocking.
Also, are you sure you didn't just misread "cockhead"?
9 hours later 3003959 Anonymous
>>3002660
OP is a faggot
He just can't get used to the writing style in the book
10 hours later 3004034 Anonymous
Stephen Fry (although I don't disagree with him here) is kind of annoying and I am tired of the complete and total hero worship for him. Mr. Fry was a very funny actor 10, 15, 20 years ago and he is a decently talented, funny writer. But the sun doesn't shine out of his ass. He is not the personification of wit, class, elegance, and taste, and he is not without imperfection.
10 hours later 3004051 Anonymous
>>3002672
>only just found out these things
Do you know who Stephen Fry is?
10 hours later 3004083 Anonymous
>>3004034
I love Stephen, because he is what I aim to be: a very knowledgeable and quite funny man who's also deeply flawed and often insufferable.
But because of his ubiquity, proles see him as a public intellectual or a genius. I'm sure this embarrasses him. In interviews, you can see him cringe whenever the interviewer starts off by saying, "Stephen Fry, you are a national treasure..."
10 hours later 3004099 Anonymous
>>3002660
>Can you explain what's wrong with ulysses? and why Fry is wrong to cite it as his favourite?
'Ulysses' is the book people who don't read (but think themselves to be intellectual) always cite as a favorite book.
Also, since 'Ulysses' is basically a 1000-page book about nothing, you can't even call out these posers for their fraud.
10 hours later 3004101 Anonymous
>>3004099
stop it with this stupid bullshit and acknowledge that there are people who have legitimate reasons for liking ulysses, even if you yourself do not agree with those reasons
this refrain of stupid bullshit about ulysses is so fucking tiresome.
11 hours later 3004145 Anonymous
>>3002612
8/10. I chuckled.
11 hours later 3004178 Anonymous
>"a stupid person's idea of a clever person"
And it's true you know. It does him credit that even if it is just modesty in self defense, that he acknowledges it.
11 hours later 3004205 Anonymous
>>3004178
>"a stupid person's idea of a clever person"
I always considered this to be Sheldon from Le Big Bang Theory
12 hours later 3004238 Anonymous (no.png 223x184 11kB)
>>3002571
12 hours later 3004240 Anonymous
>>3004099
Stephen Fry really does love the book though. He did a documentary on it at one point, although I can't quite remember what it was called.
12 hours later 3004246 Anonymous
>>3004101
Logic fail.
There are people who legitimately like 'Ulysses', so not those who like 'Ulysses' are pseudo-intellectual posers.
But all pseudo-intellectual posers claim 'Ulysses' as their favorite book.
12 hours later 3004252 Anonymous
>>3002346
You can try. You'll never finish.
12 hours later 3004255 Anonymous
>>3004246
so then there's no reason to get on Fry for liking the book (since it doesn't imply anything about whether he's a pseudo-intellectual)
and that's also nothing against the book itself
so stop fucking bringing it up any time someone mentions the book
12 hours later 3004259 Anonymous
>>3002355
Can someone post a link to that video?
12 hours later 3004270 Anonymous
>>3004240
>Stephen Fry really does love the book though.
Citation needed. I think he loves the street cred of namedropping 'Ulysses', not the book itself.
12 hours later 3004279 Anonymous
>>3004270
He studied English at fucking Cambridge.
Why is that itself not enough?
13 hours later 3004287 Anonymous
>Russian emigre writes a smack down on your entire culture
>All the literary critics applaud.
Fucking Americlaps.
13 hours later 3004321 Anonymous
>>3004279
>He studied English at fucking Cambridge.
So? Is that supposed to be an endorsement? Graduating with a degree in English from Cambridge means fuckall. (In fact, graduating with any degree from any university means fuckall, except for evaluating job applications.)
13 hours later 3004334 Anonymous
>>3004259
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbMOhRL6wsA
14 hours later 3004341 Anonymous
>>3004334
Thanks. Far more interesting is this though:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtOQi7xspRc
From the way he reads it, it seems Finnegans Wake is supposed to be music in text form.
14 hours later 3004343 Anonymous
>>3004270
>>3004270
This.
14 hours later 3004356 Anonymous
>stephen fry
>reads innaresting facts and statistics from an auto-cue whilst hosting a comedic quiz show
>omg he is r genius
this is how reddit works
14 hours later 3004360 Anonymous
>>3004321
8/10, made me lol, someone will respond to this seriosuly
14 hours later 3004366 Anonymous
>>3002571
>2. Gravity's Rainbow
>10. LoTR
My sides and fronts
14 hours later 3004367 Anonymous
>>3004270
He mentions in an interview that it is his favourite book and that probably many people will be dissapointed to hear that. He mentions about how it is perfectly written (he also cites The Great Gatsby) and says a whole bunch of stuff about how expansive the work is, I stopped listening there though since I haven't yet read Ulyssus.
Can't.
Seem.
To.
Find.
Where. I heard. Him. Say. That. Though
14 hours later 3004370 Anonymous
Wait, are we hating Ulysses too now, guys?
I thought out of Ulysses/Gravity's Rainbow/Infinite Jest it was supposed to be the good one.
14 hours later 3004378 Anonymous
>>3004356
I hate the guy. He's not entertaining at all. Yes, Fry and Laurie was shit. Mitchell and Webb and Armstrong and Miller are far better than that shit.
14 hours later 3004382 Anonymous
>>3004370
The fact of the matter is that they are all great. Some people think hating masterpieces makes their taste that much better, bizarrely enough.
14 hours later 3004388 Anonymous
Dang yo. You guys are harsh, I think at the very least he's quite charming. Wasn't a big fan of Fry and Laurie but he is quite humorous. QI is an excellent show and as much as I like Michael Palin I think Fry is better suited for the role. He does go off on tangents which relate to the subject, though he would be doing research I guess before it, also it's pretty heavily edited. lrn2tvproduction guise.
>>3004382
Pretty much this
14 hours later 3004399 Anonymous
>>3004321
You listen to too much kanye west you pleb
14 hours later 3004400 Anonymous
>>3004388
>He does go off on tangents which relate to the subject, though he would be doing research I guess before it
he uses the same researchers as 'who’s line is it anyway'... he does almost nothing apart fro turn up and read his lines. it is an illusion that he is adlibbing knowledge. he even says so himself.
also, as in 'who's line is it...' some of the answers are fixed in a bid to be humorous.
you weren't born in the 1940's. you should not be taken in so easily by media fabrications
also, father christmas isn't real
14 hours later 3004411 Anonymous
>>3004370
> I thought out of Ulysses/Gravity's Rainbow/Infinite Jest it was supposed to be the good one.
My child, there is more than one good book in the world. Also: whether a book is 'good' or not depends on which criteria you use for judging 'goodness'. Even for an individual person, more than one book can be considered 'the best', depending on circumstance and context.
15 hours later 3004423 Anonymous
>>3004411
Sane words on an insane forum. Also the best book ever lists seem to always be very US centric and I wonder wether that's because those books are heavily included into US higher education? Anyone know?
15 hours later 3004426 Anonymous
>>3004399
You're just mad that no matter how much schooling you get you'll never have a PHD (a Pretty Huge Dick)
but you can tell people are only trolling or haven't watched the video because the natural /lit/ response would be to hate on The Great Gatsby but in this case they'd be right cos fuck off Stephen Fry you didn't even HAVE a Jazz Age
15 hours later 3004429 Anonymous
I just want to say, Gravity's Rainbow is more a rite-of-passage than a really meaningful novel. Sure it's intricate in the extreme, but the parts that aren't crushingly boring are mostly omglolsorandom. Simpsons said it best, postmodern: weird for the sake of weird.
15 hours later 3004442 Bedlam
> >>3004099
>1000 page book
You've never even laid eyes on the book.
Go back to hipster academy.
15 hours later 3004450 Anonymous
>>3004442
Sorry dude, I'm not autistic enough to actually go and look up the exact number of pages in 'Ulysses'. (Also, if you're really into autism -- you need to specify an edition, that would affect the result.)
15 hours later 3004452 Anonymous (joyceJ.jpg 447x599 69kB)
>Odyssey
>one of the most interesting poems of all time
>Ulysses aka modern 'retelling'
>one of the dullest novels of all time aimed at scat lovers
Great job James
15 hours later 3004453 Anonymous
>>3004442
>Pages 644–1,000, depending on edition
My book is 700 long, but its a shitty Wordsworth paperback with small fonts.
16 hours later 3004521 Anonymous
>>3002571
I didn't think it was possible for someone to be this wrong about literature.
16 hours later 3004523 Anonymous
>>3004321
Haahahaha hilarious!!
17 hours later 3004528 Anonymous
>>3004521
> I didn't think it was possible for someone to be this wrong about literature.
Lolnope. Not a list I agree with, but a much better one than e.g., Harold Bloom's.
206.978 0.185