Swift's Stella journal was a wholly private enterprise he kept buried deeply out of public view. Twain proudly exposed his sentimentality to the mass market. I still voted Twain, even though my intellect says Swift is the greater of the two.
― Aimless, Monday, 30 January 2012 19:56 (twelve years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 00:01 (twelve years ago) link
Wow!
I'm one of the 60% but I do think the rapturous cataloguing of the myriad manifestations of Swift's genius itt is probably of more worth than any sort of poll results tbh...
― non, je ned raggette rien (Drugs A. Money), Tuesday, 31 January 2012 00:42 (twelve years ago) link
Missed this poll. Like woof, Swift is my favourite prose writer. I don't care so much for his verse. But Modest Proposal, Tale of a Tub and Part IV are staggeringly great. Twain is wonderful too, but he's ridiculously overmatched in this company.
― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:49 (twelve years ago) link
Part iV of Gulliver I meant.
― frankiemachine, Tuesday, 31 January 2012 14:52 (twelve years ago) link
but i think i'd argue that the 17th/18th century English that Swift inhabits is the most beautiful era of the language
Really loved the discussion and -- as I am marvelling at the prose in Oxford's Swift compilation (The Major Works) -- I just wanted to 'fave' this comment. And I've yet to tackle Gulliver's Travels (should start tomorrow, although I might need a bit of a break). A Tale of a Tub is just utterly unclassifiable, like what is it really? Starts as parable, then the digressions pile on, a theory or two, each sentence seems to go in three directions at once. As a reading experience its pretty unique, strange bit of text.
Then you've got the pamphlets, the invectives are brutal although you need to work hard to bring the context to life. Then again there is a bit or two that just hits at what's going right now and you just fucking despair lol.
A really good poet too.
― xyzzzz__, Thursday, 21 May 2020 20:49 (three years ago) link