Christopher commented on…
Seymour-Smith's "100 Most Influential Books Ever Written"
Untitled — 3 years ago
These kinds of lists irk me. Almost no female authors, dominated by literature from Western Europe, Japan, China and the US…
Surely on a global scale people have been influenced by other books? Have they never picked up a book of Khayyam? Achebe? Borges?
Comments
veniqe
Cape Town
Je Suis D'accord
BUT…How many Female Authors of note is there?
I suppose we could’ve also selected The Second Sex, Sappho, Woolf, Sei Shonagon, etc but, be honest now, thre aren’t as many female authors as there are men.
And Achebe is a GREAT author, I think perhaps even better than JM Coetzee (South African).
And, I did actually see Khayyam’s well known book in the list…
But, why don’t you create your own list?
Christopher
Peterborough
Ah, you have a point
I guess my exhaustion with lists of literature by old white guys isn’t as great as my sure and steady knowledge that I couldn’t make a list like this, because I definitely do not know the full breadth and weight of human experience with literature. I just keep thinking… what about books that aren’t written in Romantic or Germanic languages? Surely Tagore had a huge influence on India and Bangladesh… what about Dream of the Red Chamber? Anything by Rumi?
Maybe we should knock our heads together to come up with a different list some day. I can think of lots of female authors who’ve influenced me.
Who are your favourite South African writers? What do you think of a book like Cry, the Beloved Country? I haven’t read anything by JM Coetzee yet, but I guess I will have to pick him up. Thanks!
Christopher
Peterborough