(though Ayn Rand and Jack Kerouac are in the Modern Classics series too)
Hey I totally understand Kerouac's fallen out of favour and somewhat justifiably so, but I think his place in lit history/influence on other writers is still a bit higher than Ayn Rand's?
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 30 March 2018 09:29 (five years ago) link
Rand is worse on every level, sure, but Kerouac is not actually good. Ginsberg either, and they publish him too.
― Mince Pramthwart (James Morrison), Friday, 30 March 2018 11:37 (five years ago) link
There are about nine Ian Fleming books in Modern Classics editions - it’s not really meant as an indicator of literary quality.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Friday, 30 March 2018 12:17 (five years ago) link
Eh, I think that by definition it is. Having something in Penguin Classics is like a movie getting the Criterion treatment, it's a prestige move. And much as Criterion understand that putting out every new Wes Anderson movie will finance doing weirder stuff, I think Penguin are well aware that there's a lot of ppl who wanna read Fleming, and enjoy thinking of that as "reading a classic".
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 30 March 2018 13:04 (five years ago) link
I think a lot of Penguin Classics authors aren't "actually good", but they're respected/taught/seen as important (even if, like in the Fleming example above, it's within genre). Rand I don't think really qualifies.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 30 March 2018 13:07 (five years ago) link
Modern Classics is definitely ‘notable/ influential ‘ rather than good / worth reading and idk how many modern fiction authors are more politically / culturally influential than Rand, even if her writing was abysmal.
― Wag1 Shree Rajneesh (ShariVari), Friday, 30 March 2018 13:21 (five years ago) link
Culturally, sure, but I'd say she's totally the least influential on literature, even compared to someone like Fleming.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 30 March 2018 17:07 (five years ago) link
I don’t think I have read any of these so I’m looking forward to the results of the poll to see where to start.
― o. nate, Monday, 2 April 2018 16:38 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Saturday, 14 April 2018 00:01 (five years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Sunday, 15 April 2018 00:01 (five years ago) link