08-27-2019, 01:11 AM
(08-26-2019, 04:21 AM)bigcat1969 Wrote: Sometimes I wonder as I read some classics if they are worth it aside from the bragging rights. Some of the 'goodness' of them might just be the difficulty of reading ye olde texte, Not all certainly. Forgive me mentioning religion, I've been getting back to my roots and studying the Bible. I went with the modern respected ESV translation and I'm stunned at how easily it reads versus the old school KJV. It is closer to the original and still is a better read and I don't have to run a constant filter in my mind from Shakespearean English to my English. At the risk of heresy, modern English is better than classics' English. Now back to PG Wodehouse...
I can be a sucker for ye olde texte, myself. But then again, if all goes well, I'll be starting my masters in Literature next year. So, perhaps I'm a little biased. The King James Bible, though antiquated, is actually a very interesting piece of literary history. I'm a bit rusty; but it might have been one of the first English translations that wasn't considered heretical or that resulted in someone's execution. I'm not religious myself; but it's amazing to think that maybe 100 years prior to the KJV people were just expected to listen to someone read Latin at them even though they couldn't understand it. Church must have been extremely confusing. And anyone who tried to remedy that risked death!
I'm a fan of reading multiple translations of things. For instance, Homer has a number of great translators going back through the centuries. Some are more modern, and some more flowery and highfalutin. It just depends on the mood you're in.
(08-26-2019, 02:47 PM)Terry93D Wrote: Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast is utterly striking, unique, and original, it is totally unduplicable, it is as strange and wonderful today as it must've been in its own time. It reads like a work of prose poetry. It is completely and utterly different not merely from LotR but just about any other fantasy series (though I hear that the Viriconium books are strongly influenced by it) and it comes with my personal (albeit probably somewhat worthless) recommendation.
This is one I have not yet read, somehow, even though it keeps coming up. I'm going to try to grab a copy one of these days. It gets nothing but good recommendations.
