TS Heavy Hitters: Powerhouses of Prose (knife-drawer edition): Jonathan Swift vs Mark Twain

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...

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.

Part iV of Gulliver I meant.

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.