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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   4273 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 30, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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That's a whole shelf of doorstoppers you've got right there. I think I've read only a few of them:

  • Moby-Dick (and it feels like it's the odd one out), everything else I can only claim partial credit for:
  • Iliad (War Nerd's version)
  • The New Testament (thanks Gideon), gave up on the Old one somewhere around the 25% mark
  • Don Quixote (it was in the children's library, no idea why, got bored to death, maybe I should revisit it as an adult)

If you want more doorstoppers, Les Misérables by Victor Hugo and War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy. I've read both, but I prefer writers that can get on with it. Dostoevsky's Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment are recommended.

If you want something like The Canterbury Tales, The Decameron is probably a better pick, the former being more of an Anglo-specific work. Or just go all the way back to The Golden Ass.

I will reaffirm reading War Nerd's version of the Iliad. The novel format communicates the humor, frustrations, and desires very clearly for anyone who isn't already intimately familiar with a more formal translation. It is simply fun to read.

For Don Quixote, the translation is very important (moreso than Dostoevsky, I’d argue, although obviously you wouldn’t have read that in English). Assuming you’re reading Don Quixote in English, did you read Grossman’s? I’d say it’s by far the best.

It was obviously in Russian, as I was a child when I last tried to read it.

My assumption was wrong!

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