Comments on: SUMMER INTERLUDE http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696 Debate and discussion between socialists Thu, 09 Sep 2010 08:34:35 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.2 By: Kevin Williamson http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86127 Kevin Williamson Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:45:32 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86127 I wonder why the novels of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Douglas Brown, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Muriel Spark, Neil Gunn, Ian Crichton Smith, Alexander Trocchi, Niaomi Mitchison, Robin Jenkins, William McIlvaney, Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Janice Galloway, Irvine Welsh, James Robertson, Jeff Torrington, Matthew Fitt, Alan Warner, Ali Smith, and AL Kennedy are off-radar in the south of England when these listy things are initiated? Remnds me off when Sky had a greatest football manager of all time viewers poll and Jock Stein didnt make the top 20 but Kevin Keegan did. :-) No disrespect to Ian McEwan, Louis De Bernieres, Frank Herbert, Dan Brown, Kenneth Graham, Douglas Adams and Richard Adams - all of whose books on that list I've read - but none of their works are fit to the lace the boots of any of the novels of above Scottish writers. I'm only surprised that the authors of Biggles, Just William, Billy Bunter, Little Black Sambo and Jungle Book were omitted from the original list. I wonder why the novels of James Hogg, Robert Louis Stevenson, George Douglas Brown, Lewis Grassic Gibbon, Muriel Spark, Neil Gunn, Ian Crichton Smith, Alexander Trocchi, Niaomi Mitchison, Robin Jenkins, William McIlvaney, Alasdair Gray, James Kelman, Janice Galloway, Irvine Welsh, James Robertson, Jeff Torrington, Matthew Fitt, Alan Warner, Ali Smith, and AL Kennedy are off-radar in the south of England when these listy things are initiated?

Remnds me off when Sky had a greatest football manager of all time viewers poll and Jock Stein didnt make the top 20 but Kevin Keegan did. :-)

No disrespect to Ian McEwan, Louis De Bernieres, Frank Herbert, Dan Brown, Kenneth Graham, Douglas Adams and Richard Adams - all of whose books on that list I’ve read - but none of their works are fit to the lace the boots of any of the novels of above Scottish writers.

I’m only surprised that the authors of Biggles, Just William, Billy Bunter, Little Black Sambo and Jungle Book were omitted from the original list.

]]> By: Louise http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86122 Louise Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:12:16 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86122 <p>Is an excellent bk 'All Quiet on the Western Front" (along with the film).</p> Is an excellent bk ‘All Quiet on the Western Front” (along with the film).

]]> By: Jim http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86120 Jim Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:06:06 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86120 Should be though Andy, why 'All Quiet on the Western Front' isn't on the list when 'The Da Vinci Code' is does discredit it somewhat. I'm not a big fiction fan myself, but I think you should give 'To Kill A Mockingbird' a go. Right about Shakespeare though, a timewaster and Tudor propagandist, wouldn't give him the time of day. Should be though Andy, why ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ isn’t on the list when ‘The Da Vinci Code’ is does discredit it somewhat. I’m not a big fiction fan myself, but I think you should give ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ a go. Right about Shakespeare though, a timewaster and Tudor propagandist, wouldn’t give him the time of day.

]]> By: Louise http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86119 Louise Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:05:50 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86119 <p>"oh OK - I am wrong! But still no Graham Greene"</p> <p>Sorry Andy, no offence, just pointing out that Orwell was there. Indeed Greene isn't<br /> there and probably should be (and meant to say that in previous comment).</p> <p>JK Rowling is from Yate, Gloucestershire though Conan Doyle was from Edinburgh....</p> “oh OK - I am wrong! But still no Graham Greene”

Sorry Andy, no offence, just pointing out that Orwell was there. Indeed Greene isn’t
there and probably should be (and meant to say that in previous comment).

JK Rowling is from Yate, Gloucestershire though Conan Doyle was from Edinburgh….

]]> By: Louise http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86117 Louise Fri, 08 Aug 2008 21:00:25 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86117 Yeah, but like most of the list the women in the top 20 are the usual suspects of literature (with the exception of Niffenegger and Rowling). Yeah, but like most of the list the women in the top 20 are the usual suspects of literature (with the exception of Niffenegger and Rowling).

]]> By: Andy Newman http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86115 Andy Newman Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:56:47 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86115 oh OK - I am wrong! But still no Graham Greene. And in terms of being biased against Scots, aren't JK Rowling and Arthur Conan Doyle Scottish? oh OK - I am wrong! But still no Graham Greene.

And in terms of being biased against Scots, aren’t JK Rowling and Arthur Conan Doyle Scottish?

]]> By: Louise http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86113 Louise Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:53:51 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86113 Andy: "It is a poor list: no Paul Auster, No Cormac McCarthy, no Richard Ford, no Faulkner, not even Gore Vidal. American novelists are actually under-represented." Tis true..... No Paul Auster "But then Kevin’s point is also wrong, becasue there are serious english novelists missing as well: no Graham Greene, no George orwell, no William Boyd, not even Kipling." Er, Andy, George Orwell is at no. 8 and no. 41 Andy: “It is a poor list: no Paul Auster, No Cormac McCarthy, no Richard Ford, no Faulkner, not even Gore Vidal. American novelists are actually under-represented.”

Tis true….. No Paul Auster

“But then Kevin’s point is also wrong, becasue there are serious english novelists missing as well: no Graham Greene, no George orwell, no William Boyd, not even Kipling.”

Er, Andy, George Orwell is at no. 8 and no. 41

]]> By: Andy Newman http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86110 Andy Newman Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:48:39 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86110 Louise, I think 9 out of the top 20 are woman, but you are certainly correct that over the whole 100, they are mainly men. Louise, I think 9 out of the top 20 are woman, but you are certainly correct that over the whole 100, they are mainly men.

]]> By: Andy Newman http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86109 Andy Newman Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:47:52 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86109 Jim, don't read much fiction nowadays, but read a lot when I was younger, so it is true that i have little interntion of reading these novels. It is a poor list: no Paul Auster, No Cormac McCarthy, no Richard Ford, no Faulkner, not even Gore Vidal. American novelists are actually under-represented. But then Kevin's point is also wrong, becasue there are serious english novelists missing as well: no Graham Greene, no George orwell, no William Boyd, not even Kipling. No German's at all! What it suggests to me is that the list is weighted toward nineteenth century novels or children's fiction. Jim,

don’t read much fiction nowadays, but read a lot when I was younger, so it is true that i have little interntion of reading these novels.

It is a poor list: no Paul Auster, No Cormac McCarthy, no Richard Ford, no Faulkner, not even Gore Vidal. American novelists are actually under-represented.

But then Kevin’s point is also wrong, becasue there are serious english novelists missing as well: no Graham Greene, no George orwell, no William Boyd, not even Kipling.

No German’s at all!

What it suggests to me is that the list is weighted toward nineteenth century novels or children’s fiction.

]]> By: Jim http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86089 Jim Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:29:08 +0000 http://www.socialistunity.com/?p=2696#comment-86089 Wow, no half measures there, you've either read a book or have no intention of ever doing so! The list does appear to be overwhelmingly British and American, and there are some curious choices - I would say for Conrad the Secret Agent was superior to the Heart of Darkness, but then what do I know, I'm certainly not as well read in fiction as mein host. Wow, no half measures there, you’ve either read a book or have no intention of ever doing so!

The list does appear to be overwhelmingly British and American, and there are some curious choices - I would say for Conrad the Secret Agent was superior to the Heart of Darkness, but then what do I know, I’m certainly not as well read in fiction as mein host.

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