What's Your Favorite Essay?

[Amotis]

Well?

My personal favorite is Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation. It's also the title of a collection of most of her best works. Awesome stuff, witty too.

How 'bout you?

[PhoeKun]

Pretty much anything by Thomas Wolfe.

That's all there is to it.

@v: ooh, that's a good one. Jonathan Swift's Argument Against the Abolishment of Religion is good, too, while I'm thinking of it.

[Mattaeu]

I can't remember it, but the first time I felt like I was making the right choice with an English major was after reading George Orwell's Politics and the English Language. (it's been awhile, and i've not read many essays, so maybe it's a little antiquated.)

linky (http://www.mtholyoke.edu/acad/intrel/orwell46.htm)

[McBish]

Well I don't read many, and I'm not sure if this counts but Douglas Adams Is there a Articfial God? is good.

[ZombieRockStar]

I point you in the direction of Shelley's "Defence of Poetry." Even though it's dense, it makes a very good point: art influences thought. Therefore, "poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the world."

Take that, people who say I'm wasting my life.

[Lord Iames Osari]

Mark Twain's The Literary Offenses of James Fenimore Cooper (http://users.telerama.com/%7Ejoseph/cooper/cooper.html). Scathingly hilarious.


If Cooper had any real knowledge of Nature's ways of doing things, he had a most delicate art in concealing the fact. For instance: one of his acute Indian experts, Chingachgook (pronounced Chicago, I think), has lost the trail of a person he is tracking through the forest. Apparently that trail is hopelessly lost. Neither you nor I could ever have guessed the way to find it. It was very different with Chicago. Chicago was not stumped for long. He turned a running stream out of its course, and there, in the slush in its old bed, were that person's moccasin tracks. The current did not wash them away, as it would have done in all other like cases -- no, even the eternal laws of Nature have to vacate when Cooper wants to put up a delicate job of woodcraft on the reader.

[bosssmiley]

Well?

My personal favorite is Susan Sontag's Against Interpretation. It's also the title of a collection of most of her best works. Awesome stuff, witty too.

How 'bout you?

I liked her essay on camp, but a lot of her stuff I found a bit *blah*.

Orwell couldn't write a bad essay if he tried, but I think my favourite has to be C.S.Lewis "The Inner Ring". A lot like "Screwtape" and "1984", reading that was very much the right idea at the right time in my life. :smallcool:

[Jack Squat]

Thomas Paine's Common Sense or Emerson's Self-Reliance. Not quite sure why though, just like 'em.

[sun_tzu]

A lot of stuff by Websnark (http://www.websnark.com/)...Paul Graham's "Why Nerds are Unpopular" (http://www.paulgraham.com/nerds.html)..."Long Live the King" (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1101031124-543785,00.html) by Lev Grossman...

[Sisqui]

Anything by Thomas Sowell.

[Amotis]

Ah, I forget C.S. Lewis. His essays are awesome. Especially when he's pissed at something and writes a satire. Yes.

[Jack Squat]

You know what? I'm also fond of Jonothan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

Is it bad that the entire time I read this I couldn't help but think "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...ribs"

[Amotis]

Swift is indeed one of my favorite satirists. Mark Twain is up there too.

[Don Beegles]

I have to agree with you on Lewis, Amotis. I love his books, fiction and nonfiction, but his essays take the cake. I got a book awhile back of two collections in one, and it's always a good time to just pick it up and see what ol' Clive has to say about Christmas, or Modernization, or anything like that.

[Portent]

I don't have much exposure to essays, but of the few I've read, I'd have to say that "Dialectics of Fear" (by either Foucault or Moretti, I don't recall off-hand; in fact, the title might be wrong as well; I'd have to go over my old class notes) is my favorite. It dealt with the evolution of the ultimate punishment a state is able to impose upon its subjects moving away from death to the power to instead "deny life" and keep someone alive without them interfering with government plans. Also covered was how a more 'enlightened' state deals with the control of its subjects' bodies and labor throughout its subjects' lifetimes. It's quite fascinating stuff.

Freud's "Heimlich" was also interesting reading as well, though I didn't really like the twelve page introduction of "uncanny" in a ton of different languages before actually moving on to the meat of the essay (or is it a chapter in a book? I don't recall). The idea of the "uncanny" being that which was 'familiar, but with a twist' as opposed to the completely alien and so forth was quite a shocker.

If anyone is contemplating going to Purdue, I highly recommend taking "Faith and Superstition" (Hist 492, I forget the extension letter) with Professor Bhattacharya. Lots of great essays and reports on views of death, fear, politics-in-horror-stories, and other stuff.

[Zangor]

You know what? I'm also fond of Jonothan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

Is it bad that the entire time I read this I couldn't help but think "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...ribs"
You know what's almost as funny as the essay? People who don't get the satire. Parents have written school boards to have the essay pulled from the curriculuum because they don't want canabalism to be promoted.

[Maglor_Grubb]

Thoreau wrote some interesting stuff, allthough he has the habit of becoming repetitive.

[Ashildr_the_Bard]

You know what? I'm also fond of Jonothan Swift's A Modest Proposal.


I second that. I scandalized my entire English class by discussing that one time. Ah, the South.


Thoreau wrote some interesting stuff, allthough he has the habit of becoming repetitive.


When you said "interesting" you really meant "tedious" right?

[Amotis]

Hey, Thoreau, like I've said before, if one of the very very few Americans respected by the world. The rest of the planet doesn't think us very smart so it's good when they recognize someone. (Seriously, they think we're blues music, comic books, john cage, Dr. King jr, and Thoreau. That's it.) His work may have not been completely original and he may of not been the greatest writer, but his works are pretty much universally hailed.

[Telonius]

Would the US Declaration of Independence count as an essay? #51 of the Federalist Papers, otherwise.

"Nostalgia for the Front" by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was always one of my favorites, though it's pretty obscure.

[Amotis]

Really? The Declaration is pretty vague and pointless. I mean, it was used to harruh us into revolution but it's application today is kinda limited.

[Telonius]

It seems exciting, relevant, and applicable to the present day, at least to me. It helps me remember what it is Americans are supposed to be standing for, and against, then and now.

[Amotis]

It's super vague. I remember analyzing it in my R&W class and how people used in it the slavery debate and it really showed it's lack of structure and usage. It contradicts itself everywhere. The Declaration is really just a lot of rah and nothing more. Not saying that that's bad, we needed rah, it's just a strange document to keep having to refer back to, especially in modern times.

[Gorbash Kazdar]

The Declaration is useful in that it established a basis for the revolution beyond the list of greivences included. The latter portions of it tend to a bit to specific to the exact situation and time period to resonate as much today as they did then, but the first portion provides a larger purpose, beyond simple differences over taxation (and one could argue the tax concerns were simply the most obvious example of the colonial's concerns). Now, discussing politics isn't something allowed here on these forums, so I'm not arguing any particular side here, but that larger purpose concept, with the wonderfully rendered words of Thomas Jefferson and Ben Franklin, is probably the portion that makes it a most interesting and important document to read.

Personally, I greatly enjoy anything written by Mark Twain or Jonathon Swift.

[Sisqui]

Would the US Declaration of Independence count as an essay? #51 of the Federalist Papers, otherwise.

"Nostalgia for the Front" by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was always one of my favorites, though it's pretty obscure.

If you like works in this particular vein you might like Thomas Sowell as well. Kind of obscure for most people's tastes but a very good read. He is one of the few writers who can make economic theory interesting too...:smallsmile:

[Amotis]

Gorbash Kazdar - Was that a cease and desist?

[Gorbash Kazdar]

Gorbash Kazdar - Was that a cease and desist?
No, just a friendly reminder that we should stick to literary discussion and avoid getting into the politics.

I am keeping an eye on this thread (as much because it's a topic I find interesting as anything else), and I would caution that we avoid modern political essayists as much as possible, but so far everything is kosher.

EDIT: And I do agree that the Declaration does tend to be a bit vague and self contradictory, but as a historical document it can provide quite a bit of insight.

[Deleran]

#1 (http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/nationalism.html) and #2 (http://www.k-1.com/Orwell/site/work/essays/elephant.html).

[Turcano]

You know what's almost as funny as the essay? People who don't get the satire. Parents have written school boards to have the essay pulled from the curriculuum because they don't want canabalism to be promoted.

I've also noticed that quite a few people in the abortion debate have used A Modest Proposal in their rhetoric due to the barbarity of the proposal and therefore missed the point of the essay entirely, which is as follows:


I desire those politicians who dislike my overture, and may perhaps be so bold as to attempt an answer, that they will first ask the parents of these mortals, whether they would not at this day think it a great happiness to have been sold for food, at a year old in the manner I prescribe, and thereby have avoided such a perpetual scene of misfortunes as they have since gone through by the oppression of landlords, the impossibility of paying rent without money or trade, the want of common sustenance, with neither house nor clothes to cover them from the inclemencies of the weather, and the most inevitable prospect of entailing the like or greater miseries upon their breed for ever.

(DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to be a remark about the politics of the abortion debate, just on the use of Swift in that context. So don't f14m0r me about it.)

[Sisqui]

So don't f14m0r me about it.)

I have to ask.......f14m0r???

[Turcano]

I have to ask.......f14m0r???

That was tongue-in-cheek. Or at least, it was supposed to be.

[clarkvalentine]

I always thought the Declaration of Independence was written for a European audience alarmed by a bunch of rabble-rousing farmers rebelling against their king. It was a "No, really, we have a damn good reason for this, we're not just restless peasants" plea. I doubt it actually swayed anyone who wasn't sympathetic already, but.

[tyr]

"Horrid Red Things," by C. S. Lewis.

[Nerzi]

You know what? I'm also fond of Jonothan Swift's A Modest Proposal.

Is it bad that the entire time I read this I couldn't help but think "I want my baby back, baby back, baby back...ribs"

Beaten to it :smallfrown:
Oh well not sure if anyone put a link to it (http://art-bin.com/art/omodest.html) in so here you go.

[sun_tzu]

The Chepening of Comics (http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/comics.html), by Bill Watterson.

[Ethdred]

Hey, Thoreau, like I've said before, if one of the very very few Americans respected by the world. The rest of the planet doesn't think us very smart so it's good when they recognize someone. (Seriously, they think we're blues music, comic books, john cage, Dr. King jr, and Thoreau. That's it.) His work may have not been completely original and he may of not been the greatest writer, but his works are pretty much universally hailed.

Possibly off-topic, but WHA? How many non-Americans have you spoken to? I would be surprised if 1% have even heard of Thoreau let alone know who he was or what he did. If asked to name a US author, most people would probably go for Mark Twain. Except for my friends, who would go for Hunter Thompson (Does 'The Kentucky Derby is Decandent and Depraved' count as an essay?)

My favourite essayists are the good Dr Gonzo, George Orwell (as mentioned by so many) and Thomas Babbington Lord Macauley, a 19th centruty historian and literary critic - I think I could probably happily read anything these guys have written.

[ray53208]

one entitled: "lies, damn lies, and the whole damn human race: thank you samuel clemens, the drinks are on me". i wrote it my second year of college and cannot remember a bit of it since it was lost in a fire.

[Amotis]

Possibly off-topic, but WHA? How many non-Americans have you spoken to? I would be surprised if 1% have even heard of Thoreau let alone know who he was or what he did. If asked to name a US author, most people would probably go for Mark Twain. Except for my friends, who would go for Hunter Thompson (Does 'The Kentucky Derby is Decandent and Depraved' count as an essay?)

My favourite essayists are the good Dr Gonzo, George Orwell (as mentioned by so many) and Thomas Babbington Lord Macauley, a 19th centruty historian and literary critic - I think I could probably happily read anything these guys have written.

Really? The only acknowledged American intellectual movement is probably the transcendentalists. That and our founding fathers. Frankfurt and some others are pretty well known today but as for history goes, we really don't have any other "movements" to our name.

[ZombieRockStar]

I've heard of Thoreau. Of course I have. I'm an English major. I've heard of everybody.

Of course, when I think of quintessential American literature, my mind usually thinks of ex-pats first, like Hemingway or Fitzgerald, before finally settling on Melville.

Thinking over, I think I could also piss of Bosssmiley (if he's reading) by mentioning Virginia Woolf, whose essays I find fascinating. "Death of a Moth" and "Thoughts on Peace During an Air Raid" being some of the more interesting.

[Ishmael]

Thomas McFarland's Tragic Meanings in Shakespeare really put everything literary into a happy boat.

I prefer Emerson to Thoreau, really. Emerson's a lot easier to read, and it is a lot more clear.

Yay for transcendentialism!

[Ethdred]

Really? The only acknowledged American intellectual movement is probably the transcendentalists. That and our founding fathers. Frankfurt and some others are pretty well known today but as for history goes, we really don't have any other "movements" to our name.


OK, first we were talking about individuals not movements. Second, movements don't matter - and if they did have you heard of the Beats? Almost certainly the only US literary/intellectual movement most people (in and out of the US) will have heard of. And couldn't you argue that Gonzo is a 'movement'? I don't think Hemingway or Fitzgerald were in a movement, but when you're that good, you don't need to be - they're certainly well known abroad. And for that matter, modern feminism was pretty much invented in the US (with apologies to Dr Greer). Black Power was a specifically US movement. I could go on, but I won't.

I'm really interested in where you get these ideas from - specifically the two linked ideas that a) large numbers of people have heard of Thoreau et al (the only Frankfurt I know is in Germany) and b) the rich tapestry of US intellectual and cultural life is unappreciated outside your borders. I'm not trying to flame/troll, I am genuinely interested in how these ideas came about, since they are so totally alien to my experience. OK, I probably know more about the US than the average Brit, but come on....

[Amotis]

The Beatifics? Allen and the gang? Sure, but I've yet to see America respected for a movement like that.

And I'm pretty sure modern feminisms was started by Simon de Beauvoir, who was very french.

Racial equality was also not just the US (heh I was just talking about this), just look to the British and their 2 tone, ska movements. They (you) fought just as hard as we did.

Well look at this; the statues of high culture are philosophy, music, and literature.

Transcendentalists, blues (and john cage), and comic books.

Okay, that's a pretty huge exaggeration, but the rest of the world sees us as a pretty young nation so our output into the rest of the world is limited at best.

[Ethdred]

Simon de Beauvoir was an early light of modern feminism, as was Greer, but it was really developed much more in the States.

The Beats are never known as the Beatifics - OK, Kerouac once tried to put that spin on their name, but it had as much to do with being (dead) beat, or with music. And lots of people respect that movement and the US for being the place that gave birth to it - the whole Road movie idea came largely from it. OK, it's never been mainstream, but then what 'hgh culture' is?

Black Power was not just a desire for racial equality - it was a specific idea about how to organise society. In its extreme form it was as racist as any Jim Crow Dixiecrat. Much as I love 2 Tone, Jerry Dammers never, to my knowledge, organised snipers to take out firemen.

Even given your extremely narrow view of what makes for high culture:

Philosophy - erm, that old democracy, freedom, rights of man thing? OK, you didn't invent any of it and you've hardly been perfect in the execution of it but you developed and refined it and proved it could work on the scale of a large nation. But largely you have been true to your British roots and been rather wary of abstract thinkers. However, you could argue that the whole school of modern management thought is a modern philosophy - and don't you dare try to argue that no-one in the world knows or respects that.

Music - erm, rock and roll? Hip-hop, the most successful musical form today? Or, if you want to be snobbish about it - JAZZ FOR CRYING OUT LOUD!!!!! America's classical music, totally home grown and hugely influential. And let's not forget the muscials - there are a lot more people who can hum a Copeland or Sondheim tune than even know who BB King is.

And to say the US output into the world is limited just shows that your understanding of it is limited. After all, what are we using to communicate right now? Almost entirely US designed products over a medium invented by the US Government in a language turned into the world's most popular language in large part by the US media.

So I have to ask - please tell me one non-US person you know who thinks the only US contribution to world culture is trancendentalism

[Amotis]

Beatific is fine, it means both, I doubt they wanted it to mean one or the other, whether bliss or music, I don't care and I really don't think they did.

And if you want to go from development rather then source, that crosses off a lot of things America has done. We caused, people too off with it, etc. Feminism was developed in Europe and by the same token, we took it in. I think you're just arguing technicalities if you wanna say if belongs to America.

With Black Power you have to look else where as well. Black Pathers have disassembled, yeah, but look at the Nation of Islam. World wide. World known. Not as an American institution, but something more.

And jeez, I was only stating points of high culture because I don't feel like digging into everything America has done and trying to see who knows it or not and if that's applicable. At least sticking with three points like that you have a balance, an acknowledgment, and that each nation has a national bit about it.

And yeah, I confess, America is known for it's revolution and it's government. Heck, we sparked the rest of the world for change. We were the first. But if you wanna go into modern management, you have to point to the enlightenment again.

And to music...riiiight. Rock and Roll is a world wide thing. It is no way ours. We may of had the fore fathers, Berry, Elvis, Haley, but are you gonna deny Beatles, Stones, and the rest of the british invasion the name of rock and roll? You can't draw the line between early rock and roll and what we know of it today, just like you can't draw a cultural one. Blues is ours, the result of spanish and moorish harmonies, african girot styles, and church chords and style of singing. It was the result of our mashing pot of styles and purely ours.

Hip Hop? NYC sure, but it's not the genre breaking style that spawned out of no where like the blues. It's latin america's if it anyones.

Jazz? It's development is just as important in France as it was in the US.

All these genres you're listing can't be traced down to a country because of how late they came into the game. Influences spread, cultures embraced, there is no one source. Blues is unique because of the very nature of it. Why we can claim it to be an american style of music.

As for American classical, if we're talking about acknowledgment and respect, Copeland, Barber, Bernstien, Duke, Parker; hardly. American is known for it's extravagant maverick modern composers. Respect for those psuedo-open chord, not-quite-there-polyrhymic, tone row, American tonal composers are either known for their American nationalists movements, and the mixing of media. Nothing much more. The respect and admiration toward a "real" American composer belongs to Cage and the others.

[Ethdred]

I really want to know what the weather is like on your planet. For a while there I thought you were talking about this world, but now it's obvious you're not.

[Amotis]

Okaaay.

Fine, I admit I'm only one person and I'm American. And that, just like yours, view is limited to only one person's.

But I can strongly state my confidence in the music factor. I constantly converse with people outside of America over the concepts and views of music. And I can tell you what I stated is correct. That it's the general concession of people deeply immersed in music, its past, present, and future.

But meh, whatever.

[JabberwockySupafly]

Tough one. I like a lot of essays. Anything Allen Ginsberg wrote (yes, he did a few essays in his time) ranks high up in my book, but I'd honestly have to go with Oscar Wilde's essays as the tops, specifically De Profundis. The Soul of Man under Socialism, and The Critic as Artist are also excellent, but De Profundis is just something in a league all it's own.


Cheers
JS

[Ethdred]

But I can strongly state my confidence in the music factor. I constantly converse with people outside of America over the concepts and views of music. And I can tell you what I stated is correct. That it's the general concession of people deeply immersed in music, its past, present, and future.

No it isn't - you are simply wrong. You think hip hop is Latin American. You think Jazz is French. I have never, ever, in all my years of being deeply immersed in music, come across anyone holding those views. I can find nothing on the internet that backs up those views (OK, I didn't search too hard) but I can find plenty that backs up my view that large parts of the world see the US as responsible for these forms, and to a large part base their judgement of the US on them (and Hollywood). These people you are conversing with either know nothing about music or nothing about geography.

[Amotis]

No, I think Hip Hop and Jazz are international. They are Latin America's an France's just as much as they are America's or the numerous other cultures that contribute to a musical genre like that. There's a reason the recording and sale of artists was a groundbreaking thing. There's a reason why Ledbetter was famous in Britain. There's a reason why there's a cloud of collective musical community over the entire world. There's a reason why genre's like hip hop and jazz cannot be just claimed as American music.

[storybookknight]

There's room for both of you to be right, I think; the blues, jazz, and rock & roll flowed from each other rather sequentially as a result of the mix of african american and european styles of music. They started in the US, so by that qualification they're "american"; these days though you'll find as many or more japanese jazz artists as you will american - I think they were american movements that later globalized.

Saying that america has very few things to call exclusively its own isn't really a very valid criticism of america (not that I thought you intended it as such). I think that it's at root, related to 1) youth and 2) the marked increase in globalization. American artists, philosophers, and writers have made marked contributions to basically every art; in addition america has been a proving ground for many new forms, but due to globalization, I don't think it's as easy for any one culture to come up with a movement that is exclusively theirs.

Take punk. Originally a British movement, starting there in the 1960's. Spread everywhere, now. Heavy Metal - was it Norwegian originally? Whatever it was, now it's everywhere. America can probably be commended for having as many "movements" that are readily identified with it in this global era as it does!

[Jorkens]

Amotis: hmmm... what intellectual movements of the past two hundred years actually can be claimed by any individual country to the standards you've established above?

[Amotis]

That was kinda my point though. Though Transcendentalism works though ;)