Post by Padre Romero on Jun 16, 2007 0:01:36 GMT -5
for one of my novels, I had to copose something like this...here are the requirements:
Assemble ten books, each no more than 1,000 pages, in any language, from any genre, and any time. The sum collection should best communicate the underlying problems, goals, history, philosophy, and achievements of humanity as a whole. Whenver possible, books should stand alone, and require minimum expertise and study to understand, or at the very least, allude or build off of works already in the list. Assume all books will be read in thier origional language
here is my current list
1) The gospel of Mark
2) Plato's: "Republic"
3) Charles Dicken's: "A Tale of Two Cities"
4) Isacc Newton's: "Principae Mathematica"
5) Shakespear's: "Hamlet"
6) Confucius's: "Analects"
7) The epic of Gilgamesh
8) Beowulf
9) Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
10) Arthur Millar's "Canticle for Liebowitz"
I grudgingly bumped the Koran down to 10 spot in favor of Shakespear, and eventually knocked it off the list entirely to make room for "Canticle for Liebowitz", which is a nice chunk of modern sci-fi, which should be on the list somehwere.
My problems with my list:
A) It's VERY eurocentric, only two works hail from the east.
B) The hard philosophy texts are both written by virtue ethicists...perhaps "Canticle" should get knocked off in favor of something by Kant?
C) There aren't any greek epics...while I personally think the greek epics don't communicate CLOSE to the awsomeness of Beowulf and Gilgamesh, they're SO influential that they should be on there somewhere
D) I only have one satirical work
E) Something tells me "Principae" doesn't belong at all
F) I have a personal vendetta against dickens which will end with me going back in time and hitting him with a raquetball raquet (or a raquetball ball.)
so now, come up with your own, if you please.
Assemble ten books, each no more than 1,000 pages, in any language, from any genre, and any time. The sum collection should best communicate the underlying problems, goals, history, philosophy, and achievements of humanity as a whole. Whenver possible, books should stand alone, and require minimum expertise and study to understand, or at the very least, allude or build off of works already in the list. Assume all books will be read in thier origional language
here is my current list
1) The gospel of Mark
2) Plato's: "Republic"
3) Charles Dicken's: "A Tale of Two Cities"
4) Isacc Newton's: "Principae Mathematica"
5) Shakespear's: "Hamlet"
6) Confucius's: "Analects"
7) The epic of Gilgamesh
8) Beowulf
9) Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's Travels"
10) Arthur Millar's "Canticle for Liebowitz"
I grudgingly bumped the Koran down to 10 spot in favor of Shakespear, and eventually knocked it off the list entirely to make room for "Canticle for Liebowitz", which is a nice chunk of modern sci-fi, which should be on the list somehwere.
My problems with my list:
A) It's VERY eurocentric, only two works hail from the east.
B) The hard philosophy texts are both written by virtue ethicists...perhaps "Canticle" should get knocked off in favor of something by Kant?
C) There aren't any greek epics...while I personally think the greek epics don't communicate CLOSE to the awsomeness of Beowulf and Gilgamesh, they're SO influential that they should be on there somewhere
D) I only have one satirical work
E) Something tells me "Principae" doesn't belong at all
F) I have a personal vendetta against dickens which will end with me going back in time and hitting him with a raquetball raquet (or a raquetball ball.)
so now, come up with your own, if you please.
