Alan Greenspan
Oh, I loved Dr.Zhivago!
One Hit Wonders
Started by Wilfrid, May 01 2012 03:23 PM
43 replies to this topic
#31
GordonCooks
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:17 PM
Oh, I loved Dr.Zhivago!
Jazz is musical improvisation; it is the art of the moment. In the recording of jazz, the inspiration and inventiveness of this moment is made permanent by technology, giving pleasure many years after the performance.
Photography is jazz for the eye. - William Claxton
Photography is jazz for the eye. - William Claxton
#32
Sneakeater
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:20 PM
Dr. Johnson, of course, of course.
Another writer who's not primarily a novelist, though.
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#33
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:24 PM
Henry Roth
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#34
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:24 PM
Buglakov (at least in the West) (also posthumous, I guess)
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#35
g.johnson
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 08:26 PM
There are plenty of novelists who are now known primarily for one work. Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, John Bunyan, Horace Walpole, Bram Stoker*.
* Which reminds me: Mary Shelley.
* Which reminds me: Mary Shelley.
The Obnoxious Glyn Johnson
#37
mongo_jones
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:20 PM
Herman Melville.
he may be identified with only one by the hoi polloi (cf. physicists) but he wrote a bunch of good stuff.
actual one hit wonder: david foster wallace
purdah nahin jab koi khuda se, bandon se purdah karna kya?
~shaqeel badayuni
if it takes us seven years to prepare for a madness, how long shall it take us to run naked into the marketplace?
~yoruba proverb
facts are meaningless. you could use facts to prove anything that's even remotely true!
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maybe it wasn't the best wording.
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#38
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:26 PM
Sylvia Plath: I guess I'd exclude people who died young for whatever reason. She was 30 when she died, as was Emily Bronte.
That excludes Toole as well, doesn't it?
I guess so.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
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#39
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:27 PM
Oh,fuckingTolkien.
Isn't he either a two- or a four-novel author? (You're going to be hearing so much about The Hobbit in the upcoming years that it's going to make you puke.)
Yes, silly me: The Hobbit is the better book in so many ways.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
At the Sign of the Pink Pig
#40
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:27 PM
Henry Roth
No, after a long pause, he came back with a multi-volume late work.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
At the Sign of the Pink Pig
#41
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:29 PM
Do we consider Young Torless to be read?
Yes. In the sense that Musil would be remembered, if only among German readers, if he hadn't written MWQ.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
At the Sign of the Pink Pig
#42
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:33 PM
Henry Roth
No, after a long pause, he came back with a multi-volume late work.
Sure. But, at least as compared to Call It Sleep, how many people read it?
(I guess I'm confused about the criteria here.)
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#43
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:35 PM
I didn't mean to muddy the waters by suggesting we count writers who, although they wrote a number of novels, are remembered today only for one.
I was just covering off the fact that even the genuine one hit wonders may have made a stab at a follow-up or even had something else published. The difference is subtle, but I think valid. Mary Shelley wrote a bunch of novels, as did Melville (and his are still read).
Defoe - it depends how you count the plague journal, which is certainly still read. It's presented as non-fiction, but I think it's invention.
I was just covering off the fact that even the genuine one hit wonders may have made a stab at a follow-up or even had something else published. The difference is subtle, but I think valid. Mary Shelley wrote a bunch of novels, as did Melville (and his are still read).
Defoe - it depends how you count the plague journal, which is certainly still read. It's presented as non-fiction, but I think it's invention.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
At the Sign of the Pink Pig
#44
Wilfrid
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Posted 01 May 2012 - 09:36 PM
(I guess I'm confused about the criteria here.)
It is confusing. I am hopeless.
Why live your life when you could curate it?
At the Sign of the Pink Pig
