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shadowkatBeen reading the latest Entertainment Weekly magazine - which is basically a guilty pleasure mag with about as much intellectual depth as a cream puff. I know that. That's why I read it. Because it is the entertainment magazine version of a cream puff.
But...this latest issue is an admittedly pretentious listing of the 100 "greatest" movies, television series, novels, albums, and plays of all time. Is there such a thing as a critical best list in a magazine that is not pretentious? Ponders. Don't know. It does seem bit presumptuous for critics to list their favorite books, movies, albums etc - and state that they are "the best". They do it anyway. Of course. The fact that people pay them to do it and we buy mags with nothing but their lists and reviews...is another discussion.
Anyhow...I obviously have quibbles with their best lists, just a few. Also I've come to the conclusion that I have read, seen, watched, and listened to why too many of films, tv shows, novels, albums and plays in my lifetime. (Because I've read, seen, listened to and/or watched 95% of the items on each list, not to mention own several of them. Omnivorous culture junkie at your service.)
1. The top 10 Shakespeare Plays. (Am admittedly a bit of Shakespeare geek, considering I 've seen practically all of them and read them.)
1. Hamlet (most overrated play on the planet - and I feel I can say that with some authority since I've read it ten times, memorized three scenes from it, written about, and watched it performed 10 different ways.)
2. King Lear (far more interesting play than Hamlet, just less quotable.)
3. Macbeth (I'd put it before Hamlet, it's more fun. And I like the Tomorrow Speech better than the To be or not to be speech. Also has stronger female characters.)
4. Much Ado About Nothing (Excuse me, no, Much Ado About Nothing does not come above Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelth Night and As You Like It. Sorry, I will not put a flawed misogynistic farce above the other three gender bender plays. The only thing that worked in that play was Benedict and Beatrice.)
5. A Midsummer Night's Dream (actually I'd put this third after King Lear and MacBeth. Having read, memorized, performed, and seen all of them done multiple times...)
6. Othello (Definitely above Much Ado...if only for the masterpiece that is Iago)
7. The Tempest (this I would put last, some great lines...but it is rather difficult to pull this play off well. It's a fun play..but there are better ones..Twelth Night comes to mind.)
8. Henry V (Romeo and Juliet has been performed more times and has far more going on than Henry the V. So too does Richard the III, which I prefer. Henry V just has that one great patriotic bit and the bit with Falstaff.)
9. Merchant of Venice (put it above Henry, definitely.)
10. Romeo and Juliet. (seriously? The most performed Shakesepearean play? With some of the strongest female roles???)
Okay my top ten:
1. Macbeth (one of the best female villains, and a great anti-hero. Excellent examination of how power corrupts and loss.)
2. King Lear (discussion of class, power, gender dynamics, father/daughter...an epic)
3. Midsummer Night's Dream (fun, but also a light and satirical take on romance and lust, perhaps one of the funniest comedic plays...if done right.)
4. Hamlet (the play within the play...is the whole reason it gets on this list. The chess match between the crazed with grief Hamlet and his murderous uncle..)
5. Twelth Night (gender bending at its best, and lots of interesting commentary on class)
6. Romeo and Juliet
7. Othello
8. The Tempest
9. Richard the III
10. Henry the V
Honorable mentions: As You Like It, Merchant of Venice (admittedly not a fan of this play)
2. 10 Greatest Musicals...
1. Guys & Dolls (WTF??)
2. Gypsey (seriously??)
3. Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (yes, on the list, but third? No.)
4. Oklahoma! (what? Carousel and South Pacific are more interesting and have better musical arrangements)
5. West Side Story (yes, but in 5th place????? And after Guys and Dolls???)
6. Cabaret ( after Guys and Dolls??)
7. A Chorus Line
8. Rent
9. Carousel (I'd switch this with Oklahoma)
10. Book of Mormon (oh please.)
My list:
1. Cabaret
2. West Side Story
3. South Pacific
4. Les Miserables
5. Guys and Dolls
6. Into the Woods (I actually prefer Into the Woods to Sweeny Todd...)
7. Jesus Christ Superstar (sorry, better music than Book of Mormon and irreverant yet still relevant. In my opinion it is the best of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice pairing)
8. A Chorus Line
9. Rent
10. Avenue Que
Honorable mentions: My Fair Lady, Gigi, Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music, Oklahoma, Pippin, Chicago, Evita)
3. 100 Movies...
First off, there's a dearth of comedies. There's only two Woody Allen, while I agree with Annie Hall, I hate Manhattan. (I'd have put the Purple Rose of Cairo or Crimes and Misdeamenors or at the very least Hannah and her Sisters.)
I'm sorry Bonnie and Clyde as number 4??? Overrated. The Year of Living Dangerously was better by Peter Wier, another one I like better is Badlands - with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, who are also playing killers. The Searcher's is also overrated, I'd have put Red River instead at number 12. I'd also put Rear Window on the list, and it's not there. And, no, it should be The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring not The Return of the King (which only had three good scenes in three hours). Yes, one is more melodramatic, but the other is shorter and more gripping and less drug out.
Why do all the critics love Goldfinger? Dr. No and Skyfall were so much better.
Citizen Kane, I've decided, is the Ulysses of the film world. If you are a film buff/geek/critic who is obsessed with narrative style and technique, you love it to pieces, if you are anyone else? You went to sleep during the first five minutes.
I'd have put Lawrence of Arabia higher on the list. Also there's only one Charlie Chaplin (Gold Rush)- The Little Tramp should be there not Sunrise, and before Duck Soup. Not to mention the lack of Harold Lloyd films and Laurel and Hardy. And there doesn't appear to be any Luis Burneal...I'd have chosen at least one, maybe That Obscure Object of Desire? And where is "Death in Venice???" Also, what the heck is Titantic doing here before such classics as Terminator, Alien, Taxi Driver (Taxi is not on this list - I kid you not, instead Goodfellas and Mean Streets...). And while I liked the Dark Knight, I'd have put Taxi Driver first.
It's sad, but I think I've seen 95% of the 100 movies on this list.
4. 100 best TV series...
Okay, I agree with the ranking of the Wire (number 1) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer number 8.
Not sure about the Mary Tyler Moore Show at number 4, there were better and more iconic series. I'd have put MASH there personally. Or for that matter, The Andy Griffith Show and Mad Men at 7 and 9 respectively? I'd have put Breaking Bad which is way way down the list before both.
They also ranked Buffy #3 in the list of the 10 greatest dramas. Which I do agree with. I do not however agree on My So Called Life, The X-Files or Law & Order. I'd put Battle Star Galatica v2 in above My So Called Life (which got silly after its first season - sort of a 15 year old's version of thirtysomething). And I'm admittedly not an X-Files fan (although I did watch it off and on...and it did have moments, isolated moments of brilliance mainly due to Vince Gilligan who is the showrunner for Breaking Bad.)
Breaking Bad is too far down this list - it's at 18, so too is MASH and Hill Street Blues. Whoever came up with this list has a huge weakness for sitcoms..which are in the top ten.
Friends at 21? Really? IT wasn't that funny. I watched it. MASH is better, so too was Barney Miller and Taxi.
Another quibble is 10 Greatest Cult Classics, here's their list:
1. The Wire (okay, agree)
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (agree)
3. Arrested Development (yep)
4. My So-Called Life (NO! Farscape or BSG or Bab 5, please...not this.)
5. The X-Files (okay...but I think it is pretty mainstream)
6. Doctor Who (should be much higher on the list...like #3 at least)
7. Star Trek Next Generation (agreed, although it came close to mainstream too.)
8. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (okaay...)
9. The Comeback (someone at EW has a thing for short lived sitcoms, just saying)
10. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. (eh...probably, although...I don't know)
My List:
1. Doctor Who (on longevity alone)
2. The Wire
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Arrested Development
5. The X-Files
6. Star Trek (original series)
7. Battle Star Galatica version 2
8. WKRP in Cinncinnati or Mary Hartman/Mary Hartman
9. STar Trek the Next Generation
10. Babylon 5
Honorable mention: Firefly, Veronica Mars, Farscape, Deep Space Nine
Do you have a list?
Nor do I agree with the 10 Greatest Sitcoms...
1. The Simpsons
2. Seinfield
3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
4. All in the Family
5. The Andy Griffith Show
6. I Love Lucy
7. Cheers
8. The Cosby Show
9. Roseanne
10 Arrested Development.
That's a boring list. Mine:
1. MASH
2. Seinfeild
3. I Love Lucy (I didn't like it but I admit it has to be on the list)
4. Cheers/Fraiser (tie)
5. Taxi
6. Mary Tyler Moore Show/Dick Van Dyke Show (tie)
7. All in the Family
8. WKRP in Cinncinati/News Radio (tie)
9. Roseanne/Cosby Show (tie)
10. Arrested Development
Honorable mentions: Louis CK, Time Goes By, Coupling (which I like better than Friends, it's the British version and it made me laugh more), Fawlty Towers
Why isn't Gunsmoke listed?? Gunsmoke is amongst the longest running tv series of all time and created a genre, more than one person has copied. Firefly, Defiance, Deep Space Nine, Star Wars, and others have copied bits of Gunsmoke. But do they list it? No. Instead The Rifleman is listed, the Rifleman???...and Freaks and Geeks which lasted only one season.
Why the hell is Ally McBeal on this list? Or Beverly Hills 90210??? I get Dallas, but...
Also have quibbles about the 10 Greatest Sci-fi Shows:
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (first of all this isn't really a science fiction series...more fantasy than anything else, but I don't quibble with it being one, just the categorization. Yes, I know they did robots, but it was still fantasy science.)
2. The Twilight Zone (eh...okay, works. No one beats Rod Serling, well except Whedon apparently.)
3. Lost (no, I'm sorry BSG was better, so too was Farscape and Bab 5.)
4. The X-Files (yes, definitely, but I'd put it above LOST)
5. Doctor Who (this should be number 3 or number 1)
6. The Prisoner (eh...no, at the end of the list)
7. Star Trek the Next Generation
8. Battle Star Galactica
9. Myster Science Theater 3000 (okay I found it to be unwatchable most of the time...but YMMV)
10. Star Trek.
My List:
(I like Buffy, but it is not sci-fi).
1. Twilight Zone
2. Doctor Who
3. Farscape
4. BattleStar Galatica 2003-09
5. Star Trek the Next Generation
6. Babylon 5
7. The X-Files
8. The Prisoner
9. Star Trek 1966-69
10. Lost
Honorable mentions: Firefly, Deep Space Nine, Misfits, Now and Again,
Now if we were doing 10 Greatest Horror-Fantasy TV Series:
1. Buffy
2. Game of Thrones
3. The Walking Dead
4. Angel the Series
5. American Gothic
6. Being Human (UK version)
7. Once Upon a Time
8. Vampire Diaries
9. Forever Knight
10. Highlander
Honorable mention: Merlin
5. 100 Greatest Novels
I don't know, I've admittedly never read Anna Karenia, but is it really the greatest novel ever written? I'm not sure there is one to be honest. It's akin to picking straws. And my mind changes daily. I do agree that The Great Gatsby depends on frame of mind - but I appreciated it at 17. I also appreciated Old Man and the Sea at 17 and gobbled up just about any literary classic I could get my hands on. Thought the Great Gatsby was amazing and I still remember it vividly at 46, go figure. A little dry in places, but amazing. I was into literary books in my teens and twenties, having previously burned out on the non-literary ones. Now I've gone the opposite direction, I blame it on perimenopause, work, and an inability to focus.
This list is notable for having a lot of female writers on it and fairly high up. Also no Ulysses, but that is an admittedly difficult book for most people to read. That said, I would have put it on the list above One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Sound and the Fury. Neither of which I remember as well as Ulysess, which was written prior to the other two and gave the other two writers the idea, even though I read all three around the same time. (I was going through a phrase - in which I'd become enamored of stream of consciousness and poetic prose narrative styles. I was more interested in writing style and metaphor in my early twenties than story. Complete opposite now. Very weird.)
Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand at #36? Are they insane? And their excuse?
Rarely does a book rivet you and make you ponder the Big Picture, but Rand's masterwork, about a man who decides to organize a strike and bring the world to a stand still does both.
Oh dear. Apparently somebody is not quite as well-read as they think they are? Rand's book is horse manure. I'm sorry it is. I've read almost all of her books - and it's the least readable and silliest. I made it half-way through and rolled my eyes, then began to giggle. You can basically get the same message in Anthem, which is tighter and far better written.
I'm sorry, just as it is very hard for me to take a best film list seriously that has Titantic on it, it is equally hard to take any list seriously that has Atlas, Shrugged on it. They also left off one of the best mysteries ever written - Dashielle Hammett's masterpiece "The Maltese Falcon". This was left off of the Movie list too. Sad. "Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers" was also left off.
6. 50 Greatest Plays of the Last 100 years
Death of a Salesman? At number one? The most overrated play on the planet. Men love this play for some reason. It's good. But the best? Over Shakespeare? I just don't agree with their list...Streetcar Named Desire at number 2? I personally prefer Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Also what happened Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All To You? Or "Wit" - which I would have put in there over The Women.
The problem with being a culture junkie is you are constantly quibbling with best lists. ;-)
But...this latest issue is an admittedly pretentious listing of the 100 "greatest" movies, television series, novels, albums, and plays of all time. Is there such a thing as a critical best list in a magazine that is not pretentious? Ponders. Don't know. It does seem bit presumptuous for critics to list their favorite books, movies, albums etc - and state that they are "the best". They do it anyway. Of course. The fact that people pay them to do it and we buy mags with nothing but their lists and reviews...is another discussion.
Anyhow...I obviously have quibbles with their best lists, just a few. Also I've come to the conclusion that I have read, seen, watched, and listened to why too many of films, tv shows, novels, albums and plays in my lifetime. (Because I've read, seen, listened to and/or watched 95% of the items on each list, not to mention own several of them. Omnivorous culture junkie at your service.)
1. The top 10 Shakespeare Plays. (Am admittedly a bit of Shakespeare geek, considering I 've seen practically all of them and read them.)
1. Hamlet (most overrated play on the planet - and I feel I can say that with some authority since I've read it ten times, memorized three scenes from it, written about, and watched it performed 10 different ways.)
2. King Lear (far more interesting play than Hamlet, just less quotable.)
3. Macbeth (I'd put it before Hamlet, it's more fun. And I like the Tomorrow Speech better than the To be or not to be speech. Also has stronger female characters.)
4. Much Ado About Nothing (Excuse me, no, Much Ado About Nothing does not come above Midsummer Night's Dream, Twelth Night and As You Like It. Sorry, I will not put a flawed misogynistic farce above the other three gender bender plays. The only thing that worked in that play was Benedict and Beatrice.)
5. A Midsummer Night's Dream (actually I'd put this third after King Lear and MacBeth. Having read, memorized, performed, and seen all of them done multiple times...)
6. Othello (Definitely above Much Ado...if only for the masterpiece that is Iago)
7. The Tempest (this I would put last, some great lines...but it is rather difficult to pull this play off well. It's a fun play..but there are better ones..Twelth Night comes to mind.)
8. Henry V (Romeo and Juliet has been performed more times and has far more going on than Henry the V. So too does Richard the III, which I prefer. Henry V just has that one great patriotic bit and the bit with Falstaff.)
9. Merchant of Venice (put it above Henry, definitely.)
10. Romeo and Juliet. (seriously? The most performed Shakesepearean play? With some of the strongest female roles???)
Okay my top ten:
1. Macbeth (one of the best female villains, and a great anti-hero. Excellent examination of how power corrupts and loss.)
2. King Lear (discussion of class, power, gender dynamics, father/daughter...an epic)
3. Midsummer Night's Dream (fun, but also a light and satirical take on romance and lust, perhaps one of the funniest comedic plays...if done right.)
4. Hamlet (the play within the play...is the whole reason it gets on this list. The chess match between the crazed with grief Hamlet and his murderous uncle..)
5. Twelth Night (gender bending at its best, and lots of interesting commentary on class)
6. Romeo and Juliet
7. Othello
8. The Tempest
9. Richard the III
10. Henry the V
Honorable mentions: As You Like It, Merchant of Venice (admittedly not a fan of this play)
2. 10 Greatest Musicals...
1. Guys & Dolls (WTF??)
2. Gypsey (seriously??)
3. Sweeney Todd : The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (yes, on the list, but third? No.)
4. Oklahoma! (what? Carousel and South Pacific are more interesting and have better musical arrangements)
5. West Side Story (yes, but in 5th place????? And after Guys and Dolls???)
6. Cabaret ( after Guys and Dolls??)
7. A Chorus Line
8. Rent
9. Carousel (I'd switch this with Oklahoma)
10. Book of Mormon (oh please.)
My list:
1. Cabaret
2. West Side Story
3. South Pacific
4. Les Miserables
5. Guys and Dolls
6. Into the Woods (I actually prefer Into the Woods to Sweeny Todd...)
7. Jesus Christ Superstar (sorry, better music than Book of Mormon and irreverant yet still relevant. In my opinion it is the best of the Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice pairing)
8. A Chorus Line
9. Rent
10. Avenue Que
Honorable mentions: My Fair Lady, Gigi, Sweeny Todd, A Little Night Music, Oklahoma, Pippin, Chicago, Evita)
3. 100 Movies...
First off, there's a dearth of comedies. There's only two Woody Allen, while I agree with Annie Hall, I hate Manhattan. (I'd have put the Purple Rose of Cairo or Crimes and Misdeamenors or at the very least Hannah and her Sisters.)
I'm sorry Bonnie and Clyde as number 4??? Overrated. The Year of Living Dangerously was better by Peter Wier, another one I like better is Badlands - with Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek, who are also playing killers. The Searcher's is also overrated, I'd have put Red River instead at number 12. I'd also put Rear Window on the list, and it's not there. And, no, it should be The Lord of the Rings - The Fellowship of the Ring not The Return of the King (which only had three good scenes in three hours). Yes, one is more melodramatic, but the other is shorter and more gripping and less drug out.
Why do all the critics love Goldfinger? Dr. No and Skyfall were so much better.
Citizen Kane, I've decided, is the Ulysses of the film world. If you are a film buff/geek/critic who is obsessed with narrative style and technique, you love it to pieces, if you are anyone else? You went to sleep during the first five minutes.
I'd have put Lawrence of Arabia higher on the list. Also there's only one Charlie Chaplin (Gold Rush)- The Little Tramp should be there not Sunrise, and before Duck Soup. Not to mention the lack of Harold Lloyd films and Laurel and Hardy. And there doesn't appear to be any Luis Burneal...I'd have chosen at least one, maybe That Obscure Object of Desire? And where is "Death in Venice???" Also, what the heck is Titantic doing here before such classics as Terminator, Alien, Taxi Driver (Taxi is not on this list - I kid you not, instead Goodfellas and Mean Streets...). And while I liked the Dark Knight, I'd have put Taxi Driver first.
It's sad, but I think I've seen 95% of the 100 movies on this list.
4. 100 best TV series...
Okay, I agree with the ranking of the Wire (number 1) and Buffy the Vampire Slayer number 8.
Not sure about the Mary Tyler Moore Show at number 4, there were better and more iconic series. I'd have put MASH there personally. Or for that matter, The Andy Griffith Show and Mad Men at 7 and 9 respectively? I'd have put Breaking Bad which is way way down the list before both.
They also ranked Buffy #3 in the list of the 10 greatest dramas. Which I do agree with. I do not however agree on My So Called Life, The X-Files or Law & Order. I'd put Battle Star Galatica v2 in above My So Called Life (which got silly after its first season - sort of a 15 year old's version of thirtysomething). And I'm admittedly not an X-Files fan (although I did watch it off and on...and it did have moments, isolated moments of brilliance mainly due to Vince Gilligan who is the showrunner for Breaking Bad.)
Breaking Bad is too far down this list - it's at 18, so too is MASH and Hill Street Blues. Whoever came up with this list has a huge weakness for sitcoms..which are in the top ten.
Friends at 21? Really? IT wasn't that funny. I watched it. MASH is better, so too was Barney Miller and Taxi.
Another quibble is 10 Greatest Cult Classics, here's their list:
1. The Wire (okay, agree)
2. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (agree)
3. Arrested Development (yep)
4. My So-Called Life (NO! Farscape or BSG or Bab 5, please...not this.)
5. The X-Files (okay...but I think it is pretty mainstream)
6. Doctor Who (should be much higher on the list...like #3 at least)
7. Star Trek Next Generation (agreed, although it came close to mainstream too.)
8. Mystery Science Theater 3000 (okaay...)
9. The Comeback (someone at EW has a thing for short lived sitcoms, just saying)
10. It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. (eh...probably, although...I don't know)
My List:
1. Doctor Who (on longevity alone)
2. The Wire
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer
4. Arrested Development
5. The X-Files
6. Star Trek (original series)
7. Battle Star Galatica version 2
8. WKRP in Cinncinnati or Mary Hartman/Mary Hartman
9. STar Trek the Next Generation
10. Babylon 5
Honorable mention: Firefly, Veronica Mars, Farscape, Deep Space Nine
Do you have a list?
Nor do I agree with the 10 Greatest Sitcoms...
1. The Simpsons
2. Seinfield
3. The Mary Tyler Moore Show
4. All in the Family
5. The Andy Griffith Show
6. I Love Lucy
7. Cheers
8. The Cosby Show
9. Roseanne
10 Arrested Development.
That's a boring list. Mine:
1. MASH
2. Seinfeild
3. I Love Lucy (I didn't like it but I admit it has to be on the list)
4. Cheers/Fraiser (tie)
5. Taxi
6. Mary Tyler Moore Show/Dick Van Dyke Show (tie)
7. All in the Family
8. WKRP in Cinncinati/News Radio (tie)
9. Roseanne/Cosby Show (tie)
10. Arrested Development
Honorable mentions: Louis CK, Time Goes By, Coupling (which I like better than Friends, it's the British version and it made me laugh more), Fawlty Towers
Why isn't Gunsmoke listed?? Gunsmoke is amongst the longest running tv series of all time and created a genre, more than one person has copied. Firefly, Defiance, Deep Space Nine, Star Wars, and others have copied bits of Gunsmoke. But do they list it? No. Instead The Rifleman is listed, the Rifleman???...and Freaks and Geeks which lasted only one season.
Why the hell is Ally McBeal on this list? Or Beverly Hills 90210??? I get Dallas, but...
Also have quibbles about the 10 Greatest Sci-fi Shows:
1. Buffy the Vampire Slayer (first of all this isn't really a science fiction series...more fantasy than anything else, but I don't quibble with it being one, just the categorization. Yes, I know they did robots, but it was still fantasy science.)
2. The Twilight Zone (eh...okay, works. No one beats Rod Serling, well except Whedon apparently.)
3. Lost (no, I'm sorry BSG was better, so too was Farscape and Bab 5.)
4. The X-Files (yes, definitely, but I'd put it above LOST)
5. Doctor Who (this should be number 3 or number 1)
6. The Prisoner (eh...no, at the end of the list)
7. Star Trek the Next Generation
8. Battle Star Galactica
9. Myster Science Theater 3000 (okay I found it to be unwatchable most of the time...but YMMV)
10. Star Trek.
My List:
(I like Buffy, but it is not sci-fi).
1. Twilight Zone
2. Doctor Who
3. Farscape
4. BattleStar Galatica 2003-09
5. Star Trek the Next Generation
6. Babylon 5
7. The X-Files
8. The Prisoner
9. Star Trek 1966-69
10. Lost
Honorable mentions: Firefly, Deep Space Nine, Misfits, Now and Again,
Now if we were doing 10 Greatest Horror-Fantasy TV Series:
1. Buffy
2. Game of Thrones
3. The Walking Dead
4. Angel the Series
5. American Gothic
6. Being Human (UK version)
7. Once Upon a Time
8. Vampire Diaries
9. Forever Knight
10. Highlander
Honorable mention: Merlin
5. 100 Greatest Novels
I don't know, I've admittedly never read Anna Karenia, but is it really the greatest novel ever written? I'm not sure there is one to be honest. It's akin to picking straws. And my mind changes daily. I do agree that The Great Gatsby depends on frame of mind - but I appreciated it at 17. I also appreciated Old Man and the Sea at 17 and gobbled up just about any literary classic I could get my hands on. Thought the Great Gatsby was amazing and I still remember it vividly at 46, go figure. A little dry in places, but amazing. I was into literary books in my teens and twenties, having previously burned out on the non-literary ones. Now I've gone the opposite direction, I blame it on perimenopause, work, and an inability to focus.
This list is notable for having a lot of female writers on it and fairly high up. Also no Ulysses, but that is an admittedly difficult book for most people to read. That said, I would have put it on the list above One Hundred Years of Solitude and The Sound and the Fury. Neither of which I remember as well as Ulysess, which was written prior to the other two and gave the other two writers the idea, even though I read all three around the same time. (I was going through a phrase - in which I'd become enamored of stream of consciousness and poetic prose narrative styles. I was more interested in writing style and metaphor in my early twenties than story. Complete opposite now. Very weird.)
Atlas, Shrugged by Ayn Rand at #36? Are they insane? And their excuse?
Rarely does a book rivet you and make you ponder the Big Picture, but Rand's masterwork, about a man who decides to organize a strike and bring the world to a stand still does both.
Oh dear. Apparently somebody is not quite as well-read as they think they are? Rand's book is horse manure. I'm sorry it is. I've read almost all of her books - and it's the least readable and silliest. I made it half-way through and rolled my eyes, then began to giggle. You can basically get the same message in Anthem, which is tighter and far better written.
I'm sorry, just as it is very hard for me to take a best film list seriously that has Titantic on it, it is equally hard to take any list seriously that has Atlas, Shrugged on it. They also left off one of the best mysteries ever written - Dashielle Hammett's masterpiece "The Maltese Falcon". This was left off of the Movie list too. Sad. "Member of the Wedding by Carson McCullers" was also left off.
6. 50 Greatest Plays of the Last 100 years
Death of a Salesman? At number one? The most overrated play on the planet. Men love this play for some reason. It's good. But the best? Over Shakespeare? I just don't agree with their list...Streetcar Named Desire at number 2? I personally prefer Six Characters in Search of an Author.
Also what happened Christopher Durang's Sister Mary Ignatius Explains it All To You? Or "Wit" - which I would have put in there over The Women.
The problem with being a culture junkie is you are constantly quibbling with best lists. ;-)
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no subject
Date: 2013-06-30 07:26 pm (UTC)And Porgy, of course, was also a groundbreaker for having a black cast and because it is such an operatic piece.
no subject
Date: 2013-06-30 08:27 pm (UTC)Show Boat...definitely for its day. Rarely performed though. And dated. It had a revival on Bway a while back which tanked. I'm struggling to remember it. I've admittedly only seen the old screen version with ?? I think Paul Robeson?? singing Old Man River - which is also the only thing I can remember from it.
But outside of Porgy and Bess..no, wait, there is another one Ragtime and
also DreamGirls. DreamGirls is actually better pick in some respects than Porgy and Bess for this category.
no subject
Date: 2013-07-01 12:29 am (UTC)