literature - I luvs it!

Who's everyone's favorite poet??

James Baldwin for meeeeee!

Really? I've never read him!

Whitman is probably mine. . . part of me wants to resist him, but I just can't.

Satan and Don Quixote are probably my favorite literary characters.

Satan is practically my hero—

Is this the Region, this the Soil, the Clime,
Said then the lost Arch-Angel, this the seat
That we must change for Heav'n, this mournful gloom
For that celestial light? Be it so, since he
Who now is Sovran can dispose and bid
What shall be right: fardest from him is best
Whom reason hath equald, force hath made supream
Above his equals. Farewel happy Fields
Where Joy for ever dwells: Hail horrours, hail
Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new Possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang'd by Place or Time.
The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n.
But wherefore let we then our faithful friends,
Th' associates and copartners of our loss
Lye thus astonisht on th' oblivious Pool,
And call them not to share with us their part
In this unhappy Mansion, or once more
With rallied Arms to try what may be yet
Regaind in Heav'n, or what more lost in Hell?

Sometimes when I'm walking around outside and feeling particularly good I like to chant out Hail horrours, hail Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell Receive thy new Possessor. FUCK yeah!

Newms and I were quite the fans of Robert Frost back in high school.

...and that has made all the difference!

I can't stand that particular poem, but man Frost is the SHIT. He also was a huge fan of Emerson, and his poetry is I think what Emerson's might have been if he were less optimistic and more dark and bitter.

Frost had the national persona as a gentle dude, but his poetry can be quite acerbic!

I enjoy works that are centred around nature when I'm not reading something with a critical slant. Took this poem from a book I read during the winter, called "Good Morning Midnight" by Chip Brown.

Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
---Robert Frost

Well, I much prefer novels or fiction when I think of writing but I did take notice of some Poe in elementary school.

And I know its cliche that I like E.A.Poe but for whatever reason I got ahold of one of his books and a biography when I was in 4th or 5th grade and I really liked a lot about him. There was stuff that was supposed to be over my head and I understood, at least I think I do. There was only one teacher I trusted enough to ask about his dark writings and my similar thinking. I made the right call in that she didn't turn me over to a counselor or anything so that was nice...

Anyway here is a link to Annabel Lee which always caught my eye. It bears a sense of an unjust deity or at least envious, murderous angels that intrigued me because I grew up in a hardcore religious house but I doubted Christianity for most of my life.

For whatever reason I still like it.

Love to read.

To be able to read is to have a power that no one can ever take away from you.

Mature people like to read, I'm surprised the youth would enjoy reading.

Trader Joe wrote:Love to read.

To be able to read is to have a power that no one can ever take away from you.

Yes!!

I have been reading a lot of Kafka lately to really catapult my feelings of meaninglessness into something quite powerful - lol. I'm going to give Crime & Punishment a read in the near future...after I finish Tropic of Cancer.

The Voice of the Ancient Bard

Youth of delight, come hither,
And see the opening morn.
Image of truth new-born.
Doubt is fled & clouds of reason,
Dark disputes & artful teazing.
Folly is an endless maze.
Tangled roots perplex her ways.
How many have fallen there!
They stumble all night over bones of the dead,
And feel they know not what but care,
And wish to lead others, when they should be led.

-- William Blake, Songs of Innocence, 1789

Henry Miller wrote:There is only one thing which interests me vitally now, and that is the recording of all that which is omitted in books. Nobody, so far as I can see, is making use of those elements in the air which give direction and motivation to our lives. Only the killers seem to be extracting from life some satisfactory measure of what they are putting into it. The age demands violence, but we are getting only abortive explosions. Revolutions are nipped in the bud, or else succeed too quickly. Passion is quickly exhausted. Men fall back on ideas, comme d'habitude. Nothing is proposed that can last more than twenty-four hours. We are living a million lives in the space of a generation. In the study of entomology, or of deep sea life, or cellular activity, we derive more . . .

Henry Miller wrote:Everywhere I go people are making a mess of their lives. Everyone has his private tragedy. It's in the blood now - misfortune, ennui, grief, suicide. The atmosphere is saturated with disaster, frustration, futility. Scratch and scratch - until there's no skin left. However, the effect upon me is exhilarating. Instead of being discouraged, or depressed, I enjoy it. I am crying for more and more disasters, for bigger calamities, for grander failures. I want the whole world to be out of whack, I want everyone to scratch himself to death.

Pure awesomeness.

I like serious literature sometimes but I can't get into it as much as I can a serious film.

The most literary author I enjoy is Vonnegut, and he is really off the cuff, sarcastic and fun. There's philosophy and other serious fare as well, but it's always fun.

Any suggestions for me for an author that is both important and fun?

Neal Stephenson is fun. His three-volume historical epic “The Baroque Cycle” (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) and the novels Cryptonomicon (written first, but following those three chronologically), and Anathem (far future) are brilliant.

His importance?....the jury's still out.

William Gibson's another: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sprawl_trilogy