2009-11-22, 00:22 | Link #3322 |
Le fou, c'est moi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
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You do...realize of course that "good poetry" is the kind of term that turns docile literary scholars into bloodthirsty gladiators fighting all out death matches, right? If all art is subjective, then poetry is in its own class of quantum confusion. If all art is actually objective after all, then the snob who claims to really know good poetry is still bullshitting you anyway.
But I shall hold back my philistine posturings on poetry and list a few famed English poets for your interest: - William Shakespeare is a playwright. Captain Obvious says he's the most famous guy to ever write rhymes in English. Captian Not-So-Obvious claims he knows everything there is to know about everything, or something like that. - John Donne is a famous representative of a certain kind of metaphysical Elizabethan poetry. Don't ask me what that's supposed to mean. - John Milton is a legendary figure of 17th century English poetry. His magnum opus on Satan's epic quest to mess shit up (also known as Paradise Lost) is considered one of the greatest English epics of all time. - For the Romantics, see TRL's recommendation of Wordsworth, to which I'll add Coleridge and Shelly. - Going way back in time, 14th century poet Geoffrey Chaucer wrote the Canterbury Tales, a major work in the landscape of English poetry. Make sure you read a modernized version, given that he didn't write in your grandfather's English, but some weird foreign language they call Middle English. - On the American side of things, Emily Dickinson is a household favorite. Just for the record, there are essentially two versions of her work out there (not counting countless complications of complex literary issues), the ones with lots of dashes (what she wrote) and the ones that replace the dashes with more "sensibly mainstream" punctuations, courtesy of her original publishers. - Continuing to American modernism, the two giants are Ezra Pound and T.S. Eliot. - Contemporary poetry is a much, much more difficult world to grasp. Given that I know jack all about it, all I can really suggest is go through a list of poets laureate and see whose poetry catches your fancy. - As said, though, I won't give opinions on how "good" I think each of them are. I can argue a good case for a good novel, but arguing poetry is a battle you come prepared with chariots, machine guns, and tactical nuclear weapons and a willingness to be thoroughly mutilated after all is said and done, only to get some worthless little corner of a foreign field to call your own [hint: that's a reference to Rupert Brooke, another English poet you might wanna look at]. Last edited by Irenicus; 2009-11-22 at 00:36. |
2009-11-22, 09:40 | Link #3324 |
books-eater youkai
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Betweem wisdom and insanity
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It would be easier to name the one than I didn't like (the very long one like the ''Don Juan '' and ''Childe Harold's Pilgrimage'' by Lord Byron), but , amond what I read until now, I do prefer the work of Edgar Allan Poe, Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud and John Keath.
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2009-11-22, 11:32 | Link #3325 | |
Moving in circles
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Singapore
Age: 49
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Edgar Allan Poe isn't technically an "English" poet. He's an American poet/writer and it usually makes more sense to read him in conjunction with other American contemporaries. Unfortunately, I've never really studied American poets, so I can't really tell you much other than the few names you've probably already heard of, like the Transcendalist poets Nathaniel Hawthorne and Ralph Waldo Emerson. As for why academics distinguish between English and American literature, well, it's too hard for me to explain. Suffice to say that there are subtle differences in style and philosophies behind the English-language poems and novels of the two realms. Try comparing the poems of Robert Frost (American, famous for his poems inspired by rural New England) to those by Williams Woodsworth (English, generally known for his poems inspired by England's Lake District), or even those by Robert Burns (Scotland's "favourite son", also a Romance poet like Woodsworth), and you'd see what I mean: American poetry tends to be more prosaic, more terse, more matter-of-fact, more down-to-earth, compared to the romanticism of contemporary English poems, which typically feature more lyrical flourishes. Since you appear to be tending towards the Romance poets, I would also recommend the works of Percy Bysshe Shelly, famous for Ozymandias, among other poems. You may also enjoy the works of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night), although he isn't actually a Romance poet, being a more modern writer who was born in Wales and lived in the United States. There's also Lord Alfred Tennyson, England's Poet Laurete during the reign of Queen Victoria, well-known for the The Charge of the Light Brigade. I don't enjoy his works, but I can see why the English found it appealing in that era. That said, I generally prefer English poetry to American poetry. On the other hand, I prefer American novels in the style of Ernest Hemmingway over that of modern English novels. How to put it? Hemmingway is more macho — I like. I identify with the sentiment more easily than I do with the post-war, post-Imperialism angst of English writers like George Orwell, even though I do enjoy Orwell's short stories like Shooting an Elephant. Hopefully, the above gives you a good starting point. I'd suggest borrowing an anthology of poems from your local library to sample a broad range of poetry from different eras. From there, you'd get a better idea of what kinds of poems you enjoy. |
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2009-11-24, 15:17 | Link #3327 | |
Delightfully lost...
Artist
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: All over the place...
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Got a prompt from Autoupdate today, alerting me to install a few updates. One of those updates had this description:
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Did some Googling and came back with more questions than answers. Can someone explain to me what this update does in layman's terms? |
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2009-11-24, 15:51 | Link #3328 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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I'm guessing you have something like Visual Studio or something that require that junk it. Its saying that (likely since its a service pack) it can not be removed. The other things you are describing sounds like a consequence of code soup in the bakasoft network. This is a development related tool, so if you don't particularly needed you should perhaps consider not installing it.
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2009-11-26, 11:45 | Link #3330 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Age: 44
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Does anyone remember a game graphically similar with dragon age except that the world was in total freedom instead of closed maps like in dragon age? I can't remember the name of the game and the only thing I do was that the game sucked at ranged attacks or so.
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2009-11-26, 16:05 | Link #3331 | |
Le fou, c'est moi
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Las Vegas, NV, USA
Age: 34
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The Elder Scrolls series. You probably are talking about either Morrowind or Oblivion. Alternatively, check Fallout 3, since the company that made the Elder Scrolls series made it as well and applied the same gaming philosophy to that game too. Or, in a long shot -- Fable II for the Xbox 360? |
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2009-11-26, 19:12 | Link #3332 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Age: 44
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2009-11-26, 19:26 | Link #3333 |
Desensitized
Join Date: May 2009
Location: LV-426
Age: 37
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The Witcher?
I've not played Dragon Age or The Witcher so it's just a random guess as it came out the following year after Oblivion. EDIT: And another random guess of a game release around '06: Gothic 3?
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2009-11-27, 00:23 | Link #3335 |
sleepyhead
Author
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: event horizon
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I remember that one, my friend accidentally beat the final boss way way before he should have even heard of it. Think in the order of 1hit KO kind of difficulty (dodge ftw, lol). This game is the one where you kill something and it comes back to life at night with +1 level in badass right?
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2009-11-30, 03:57 | Link #3337 |
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: 28° 37', North ; 77° 13', East
Age: 33
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err... do you remember if the game was real-time or turn based? if it was turn based.. I would guess it was the original NWN, but your description doesn't really fit a turn based game though :/ ... but the graphics are certainly similar, as is the style of play. I guess NWN's map's arn't completely free either, though they are fairly large. otherwise.. i would agree with an elder scrolls game.
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2009-11-30, 04:38 | Link #3338 | |
Senior Member
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Portugal
Age: 44
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2009-12-01, 15:08 | Link #3340 |
eyewitness
Join Date: Jan 2007
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To help us all save face I pretend you did ask a question, and the answer is: Yes, this dilemma has been talked about in more detail.
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problem, q&a, serious |
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