Author Topic: 100 Best Novels... (Read 3242 times)

Traditional Guy 20 · « **on:** August 14, 2012, 03:28:47 PM »

I was shocked to see this list on the Modern Library page, mostly because of the novels being mostly leftist. Of course according to our leftist "comrades" isn't it the Right that "controls everything" in our culture. :rolleyes:

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

roscoe · « **Reply #1 on:** August 14, 2012, 03:47:24 PM »

Besides the Hardy Boys when I was an adolescent, the only novel I have ever read is Bonfire Of The Vanities by Wolfe :smoke-pot:

s2srea · « **Reply #2 on:** August 14, 2012, 05:54:18 PM »

I liked Farenheit 451.

s2srea · « **Reply #3 on:** August 14, 2012, 06:24:20 PM »

They also have listed 1984 by Orwell. There are a few videos on YouTube of Bishop Williamson giving a conference on it.

Marcelino · « **Reply #4 on:** August 14, 2012, 09:18:42 PM »

Quote from: s2srea

They also have listed 1984 by Orwell. There are a few videos on YouTube of Bishop Williamson giving a conference on it.

Yeah, but it isn't as if he agrees with the film's apparent premise, that having illicit sex is somehow liberating and a government that would try to stop that is oppressive. I think he used the film as a popular example of what state oppression of "the truth" could be like. But of course, he means God's truth, I don't think George Orwell did and I'm not unique in that opinion.

"Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 6.4 (2003) 150-163
CATHOLIC READERS AND CRITICS have praised George Orwell's rejection of totalitarianism in his famous novel 1984 , and his critique of what Orwell saw as Stalin's corruption of the Bolshevik revolution in his political fable, Animal Farm. This praise is appropriate. In 1984, Orwell, a long-time socialist, describes the horrors of a system that subsumed all individual liberty to the power of a totalitarian political party; likewise, in Animal Farm, he unflinchingly describes the realities of Stalin's rise to power.

But, as Catholics, we should not attribute Orwell's insights to a Christian perspective. His insights resulted from his commitment to objective truth. Orwell examined the ideologies of the right and the left in the light of lived experience and reason, but he did so without the illumination provided by faith and an understanding of man's unique place in creation and the special role of the Catholic Church in bringing light and life to mankind. Orwell was an agnostic who recognized that Western Civilization owed much to Christianity, but he denigrated the importance of faith in the lives of individual human beings. He was nostalgic for the language and liturgy of the Church of England, but he considered all religions as remnants of a prescientific epoch. In addition, Orwell was vehemently anti-Catholic. Throughout his adult life, Orwell consistently attacked the church and her adherents. By using the divine gift of reason and the natural virtue of honesty, Orwell reached conclusions that are compatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the rights of man and the dignity of labor. He did not, however, perceive this connection. He lived and died as an enemy of the Catholic Church."

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/logos/v006/6.4spiller.html

Marcelino · « **Reply #5 on:** August 14, 2012, 09:22:30 PM »

Quote from: Traditional Guy 20

I was shocked to see this list on the Modern Library page, mostly because of the novels being mostly leftist. Of course according to our leftist "comrades" isn't it the Right that "controls everything" in our culture. :rolleyes:

http://www.modernlibrary.com/top-100/100-best-novels/

Yeah, there is a lot of junk on that list. We should start our own list!

~manzoni's, "the betrothed"

~william tell

~robinson crusoe

Sigismund · « **Reply #6 on:** August 14, 2012, 09:50:52 PM »

Dic kens

Tolkein

Traditional Guy 20 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 15, 2012, 05:10:44 AM »

Quote from: Marcelino

Yeah, there is a lot of junk on that list. We should start our own list!

~manzoni's, "the betrothed"

~william tell

~robinson crusoe

Well I have Treasure Island. I don't have many novels really but I do have some works by Chaucer, Dante's Divine Comedy, I have works by Joseph De Maistre, and I have controversial works like Hitler's Mein Kampf and Hitler's Table Talk, along with Karl Marx's Communist Manifesto and The German Ideology.

Traditional Guy 20 · « **Reply #8 on:** August 15, 2012, 05:11:58 AM »

Quote from: Sigismund

####ens

Tolkein

I was reading the critics' list not the reader list.

s2srea · « **Reply #9 on:** August 15, 2012, 11:02:50 AM »

Quote from: Marcelino

Quote from: s2srea
They also have listed 1984 by Orwell. There are a few videos on YouTube of Bishop Williamson giving a conference on it.

Yeah, but it isn't as if he agrees with the film's apparent premise, that having illicit sex is somehow liberating and a government that would try to stop that is oppressive. I think he used the film as a popular example of what state oppression of "the truth" could be like. But of course, he means God's truth, I don't think George Orwell did and I'm not unique in that opinion.

"Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 6.4 (2003) 150-163
CATHOLIC READERS AND CRITICS have praised George Orwell's rejection of totalitarianism in his famous novel 1984 , and his critique of what Orwell saw as Stalin's corruption of the Bolshevik revolution in his political fable, Animal Farm. This praise is appropriate. In 1984, Orwell, a long-time socialist, describes the horrors of a system that subsumed all individual liberty to the power of a totalitarian political party; likewise, in Animal Farm, he unflinchingly describes the realities of Stalin's rise to power.

But, as Catholics, we should not attribute Orwell's insights to a Christian perspective. His insights resulted from his commitment to objective truth. Orwell examined the ideologies of the right and the left in the light of lived experience and reason, but he did so without the illumination provided by faith and an understanding of man's unique place in creation and the special role of the Catholic Church in bringing light and life to mankind. Orwell was an agnostic who recognized that Western Civilization owed much to Christianity, but he denigrated the importance of faith in the lives of individual human beings. He was nostalgic for the language and liturgy of the Church of England, but he considered all religions as remnants of a prescientific epoch. In addition, Orwell was vehemently anti-Catholic. Throughout his adult life, Orwell consistently attacked the church and her adherents. By using the divine gift of reason and the natural virtue of honesty, Orwell reached conclusions that are compatible with the teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the rights of man and the dignity of labor. He did not, however, perceive this connection. He lived and died as an enemy of the Catholic Church."

http://muse.jhu.edu/login?auth=0&type=summary&url=/journals/logos/v006/6.4spiller.html

IF you didn't know, "1984" was a book before a movie. I'm fairly certain he referred to the book (as it would be far more detailed) during the videos.

PenitentWoman · « **Reply #10 on:** August 15, 2012, 11:42:58 AM »

The Handmaid's Tale is dangerous propaganda. I'm sure Atwood thinks of it as the female version of 1984. It is fear mongering, making women believe if they don't have the legal right to kill their babies, they will essentially become human prisoners of the government.

I am in no way a good critic of literature, but even I could identify that it wasn't even well written. It is promoted because its premise is fuel for the pro death movement. All under the guise of protecting women. It is terribly ironic.

CathMomof7 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 15, 2012, 03:04:57 PM »

I find it absolutely incredible that Ayn Rand made the reader's list. I read The Fountainhead when I was younger. I started Atlas Shrugged but couldn't make it through.

The violence and sex in the Fountainhead made me sick to my stomach.

A Clockwork Orange is repulsive. I read that, still have a copy somewhere. Absolutely revolting.

The Handmaid's Tale should be burned. Horrible work of pure propaganda.

Belloc · « **Reply #12 on:** August 16, 2012, 02:04:10 PM »

Quote from: s2srea

I liked Farenheit 451.

Good movie too,have copy w/commentary-the woman Ph.D, did not get the movie, at all and was a Jєω. Julie Christie in her comments much more spot on.....

Belloc · « **Reply #13 on:** August 16, 2012, 02:04:48 PM »

Quote from: s2srea

They also have listed 1984 by Orwell. There are a few videos on YouTube of Bishop Williamson giving a conference on it.

Orwell, not a Catholic, but also, rather spot on and B-Williamson notes this....

Belloc · « **Reply #14 on:** August 16, 2012, 02:09:24 PM »

Quote from: Belloc

Quote from: s2srea
I liked Farenheit 451.

Good movie too,have copy w/commentary-the woman Ph.D, did not get the movie, at all and was a Jєω. Julie Christie in her comments much more spot on.....

Notice how in movie, there are "cousins",theTV announcers.....notice now how TV announcers and stars,etc are called by their first names all the time, as if we should care or know who is who....

"You spend your whole life in front of that family on the wall. These books are my family"
-Guy Montag