Save the sprit of Worlds Literature...

[inken]

In my German-class we were recently asked to creat a list of 100 titles which we would take on the arch of Noah,(to be saved and represent world Lierature), including books from at least 20 countries.

Well, I don't ask you to write one hundred titles for sure but....from your country, which book (or books) would you definitly take with you?

[Zuramon]

Well...
From Germany I could name at least three author I would take:


Der Sandmann: E.T.A. Hoffmann
Aus dem Leben eines Taugenichts - Eichendorff

And the shortstories of Tucholsky.

[Emandir]

From France:

Sans hésiter : Rabelais Complete works
plus
Molière's plays
Les nourritures terrestres by André Gide (or any of his novel)
Any Jean Cocteau's Work
And, of course, Rimbaud's, Verlaine's, Baudelaire's and Ponge's poetry...

Jean-Luc

[Weldal]

Brazilian literature: the books of Machado de Assis, José de Alencar, Jorge Amado and Érico Veríssimo.
Portuguese literature: the books of Eça de Queirós, Camilo Castelo Branco and José Saramago.

[ekalin]

Brazilian literature: the books of Machado de Assis, José de Alencar, Jorge Amado and Érico Veríssimo.
Portuguese literature: the books of Eça de Queirós, Camilo Castelo Branco and José Saramago.

But all? I guess the idea was to select the best among the best... however difficult that might be!

I'd include also epics such as Homer's Illyad and Odyssei, and Camões' Lusíadas.

[Weldal]

But all? I guess the idea was to select the best among the best... however difficult that might be!

Yes, there is some variation in the quality of books written by such great authors, for instance, all experts say that the books of Machado de Assis written after 1880, when he was over 40 years old, were better than the previous ones, because he was more mature and so on, but I think that all his books, even the first ones, were all good books, I can recommend all of them...
And I also think that such analysis is very difficult. I didn't mention wonderful Brazilian and Portuguese writers, such as Aluísio Azevedo, Guimarães Rosa, José Lins do Rego and Graciliano Ramos (Brazil) and Julio Diniz and Fernando Namora (Portugal)... because I chose the ones that I prefer, even if I like very much the other ones as well...

[Blake]

omg... I hate that sort of assignments... why? because it's almost impossible... I'd like to save every book

anyway.. if I have to make a choice:

from the Dutch-speaking world:

- "De ontdekking van de hemel" (Discovery of heaven) by Harry Mulisch (the Netherlands)
- "Siegfried" by Harry Mulisch (the Netherlands)

from Belgium (Flanders to be more precise):

- "Het verdriet van België" (The sorrow of Belgium) by Hugo Claus
- "Het goddelijke monster" (not translated, I think, but I would call it: "The divine monster") by Tom Lanoye


from the rest of the world:

- "The hidden history" by Donna Tartt (USA)
- "The name of the rose" by Umberto Eco (Italy)
- "Lord of the Rings" by J.R.R. Tolkien (UK)

[Patricia]

From Argentina:

All books by:

Jorge Luis Borges
Julio Cortázar
Manuel Puig


From Uruguay:

Horacio Quiroga

[ekalin]

but I think that all his books, even the first ones, were all good books, I can recommend all of them...

From Argentina:

All books by:

OK, but I still think that violates the original idea, especially if you want only 100 books from 20 contries...

And I also think that such analysis is very difficult. I didn't mention wonderful Brazilian and Portuguese writers, such as Aluísio Azevedo, Guimarães Rosa, José Lins do Rego and Graciliano Ramos (Brazil) and Julio Diniz and Fernando Namora (Portugal)... because I chose the ones that I prefer, even if I like very much the other ones as well...

Yuck! To me Guimarães Rosa is the kind of author that should be forgotten. I've never read James Joyce, but I think I'd probably have the same opinion about him.

[Weldal]

Yuck! To me Guimarães Rosa is the kind of author that should be forgotten.

Probably you are the first person who says so...
Then add to your "list" "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, in which the author writes exactly in the way that countryside people from that Missouri-Mississipi region speak. And in the same way as "Grande Sertão Veredas" by Guimarães Rosa, I think that it's a wonderful book that is worth all patience to try to understand the text, since they can be considered magical books...

[ekalin]

Probably you are the first person who says so...
Then add to your "list" "Huckleberry Finn" by Mark Twain, in which the author writes exactly in the way that countryside people from that Missouri-Mississipi region speak.

Mark Twain may do that, but Guimarães doesn't. OK, he does, but he does more: and this is the problem. He used a whole lot of neologisms and invented words (a la James Joyce). For this reason, his books (at least some of them) are incomprehensible.

***

On the other hand, Nobokov's Lolita definitely should be preserved for the future.

[Weldal]

Mark Twain may do that, but Guimarães doesn't. OK, he does, but he does more: and this is the problem. He used a whole lot of neologisms and invented words (a la James Joyce). For this reason, his books (at least some of them) are incomprehensible.

But who can guarantee that these words are not true, spoken by people of that region (countryside of Minas Gerais state) ? I can not say, since I have lived all my life in a very different region...
Probably if I go there and speak some slangs very common here in Rio, those people will find them very weird and incomprehensible...
Even if these words are neologisms: you seem to be very conservative on literature: "Modernismo" started here in Brazil in 1922...

[Psi-Lord]

It's exactly that that makes Guimarães Rosa so important for Brazilian Literature — his unique way to handle the words, the constructions and the language itself. Is his work easy to be read? Not at all. But that's exactly the point. My Portuguese teacher could have orgasms talking about him, and we even had to write a monograph about the morphosyntax in his writing last semester.

[Luís]

My Portuguese teacher could have orgasms talking about him

I guess you're not being literal here, but either way I think your teacher should see a pshychologist

[ekalin]

My Portuguese teacher could have orgasms talking about him

I guess you're not being literal here, but either way I think your teacher should see a pshychologist

Well, whatever that sensation is, it is probably the same a professor I had experienced whenever he diverted slightly from the subject's theme to go in the fields of topology... We could feel he was really pleased by that subject...

As for Guimarães Rosa, he might be considered important, but I still think he is not worth the attention and importance he is given.

Ditto for James Joyce.

[Zoroa]

Wow ! I never thout I' d ever hear that Joyce wasn't worth reading !!!

You can read many of his books where there's no neologisms (take for instance Dubliners, where he uses Irish slang)

And Joyce is perfectly readable (though quite long if you take Ulysse) and written with so much intelligence.

Zoroa

[Psi-Lord]

Our Literature Theory teacher seems to be thinking of having us read "Ulysses" this semester. It'll actually be the first time I'll read anything by Joyce, so let's see what it comes up like for me.

He's also making up his mind between Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Abbé Prévost's "Manon Leascaut", but I'm getting off topic here...

[Weldal]

Wow ! I never thout I' d ever hear that Joyce wasn't worth reading !!!

I have never read a book by James Joyce, but I can write the same about Guimarães Rosa, I could never think that he was controversial...

He's also making up his mind between Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" and Abbé Prévost's "Manon Leascaut", but I'm getting off topic here...

I have read "Scarlet Letter"and I liked it very much, later I watched the movie and I also liked it very much...
I have read "Manon Lescault" and I also liked it very much. I wonder if there is any movie about it...
I think that you are not getting off topic, this thread is not only about James Joyce and Guimarães Rosa and, by the way, I think that both "Scarlet Letter"and "Manon Lescault" are representative of the spirit of the world literature...
If you talked about music or politics here then you would get off topic...

[Psi-Lord]

I have read "Scarlet Letter"and I liked it very much, later I watched the movie and I also liked it very much...
I have read "Manon Lescault" and I also liked it very much. I wonder if there is any movie about it...

'The Scarlet Letter' is a literary milestone in my life, because it was the first unabridged 19th century novel I've read in English. I absolutely love novels written by that time (Machado de Assis' 'Dom Casmurro' and José de Alencar's 'Senhora: Profile of a Woman' and 'Five Minutes' are definitely my three favourite books ever! And right now I'm reading a book with short stories by José de Alencar, such as 'O Ermitão da Glória'.), but I had never dared read one in English till I bumped into a copy of 'The Scarlet Letter' my ex-sister-in-law lent me.

Anyway, our teacher's ended up chosing neither. He's actually picked Stendhal's 'The Red and the Black'. At first I was even happy, because I'd never heard of it and thought it might be another opportunity to dig an English copy in the library (since most people would be looking for the translated copies); unfortunately, I ended up finding out it's actually a French novel. And I certainly don't dare read an unabridged French version of it... Oh well, it seems I'll have to take a look at some secondhand bookshops around here and find a copy of it after all.

[inken]

Why, I haven't though there would really be so much attention to this subject ^_^ thank you very much, that really helped me, and my German-class teacher was quite impressed. ^^
oO I wonder whether anybody would be interested in seeing the final list? (*cough* which actually didn't include 100 titles, because I only wanted to take books I thought worth to take, and then I hadn't had the time tofind so many... )
But...as I only took books I liked, or liked the summary of... well its for sure not the choice a linguistic proffessor would have made, if you know what I mean.