How to Know if a Book is Great
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- čas přidán 9. 07. 2024
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I have 5 levels of greatness that an author can achieve. The first 3 levels are of universal merit and the last 2 are of personal preference. Level 1 is most important & mandatory, then the levels become less & less important as we move through them but the higher the level an author can obtain the greater they are in my opinion.
Level 1-Intelligence : If an author knows what they are talking about & has something to say I’ll listen. They may not be great writers but that’s ok.
Level 2-Craft: Jane Austen is the best example of what masters of craft are capable of. There is no reason I should want to read about rich English people & their domestic problems but Austen makes me care by showing me real people (her stories seem as real as diaries) & telling stories that are so smooth. Her pace is impeccable.
Level 3-Art: This is where rereadability comes into play. This is where books start to linger in my mind, and they linger because an artist, by design, gives me things to contemplate. I’ve said these things before so let me say them in a more specific way. Every name should have meaning, every analogy better be a clue to the story’s theme. Author’s should provide readers with questions that can be answered with information found in their book or in a separate work. If the answers are in other books there better be indirect allusions to those works. There is so much more an author can do by design but for times sake I’ll move on.
The Personal Preference Levels
Level 4-These authors I respect on a personal level. Once trust has been established I’ll reread even their worst works.
Level 5-Subject Matter: This author doesn’t exist. There are a few authors who perform on the 4 previous levels but none write about wilderness adventure which is my passion. If Cormac McCarthy had a better command of his craft he would be here. Heart of Darkness would be on this level if there was at least one encounter with wildlife.
The greatest books I’ve ever read: A bunch of Shakespeare’s stuff, Paradise Lost, Anna Karenina, Heart of Darkness, The Iliad, and Stephen King’s Pet Sematary & his Dark Tower Series. And Chekhov’s stories. Blood Meridian. Great Expectations. Huck Finn.
That is amazing. Thank you for sharing this, Paul. You've clearly put a lot of thought, refinement, and deep reading into this system, and I would wholly agree with you. I've pinned this comment so others can benefit from reading through it :)
It’s so interesting…. I’m a classical musician by training, and this mindset that we should approach art looking for its GREATNESS, and that we should be purposeful in surrounding ourselves with great art, is something with which I am very familiar. And in some ways I still feel this way, at least in terms of classical music. But as I’ve grown and aged (41 now), I increasingly feel that people should engage with the art that brings them personal fulfillment. Whether works are truly great may be of importance to specialists (especially those specialists who are chiefly concerned with the canon, which is by no means the entirety of academics), but I think a more generous view is simply to say, “here’s the literature I love and why, but this is not at all what everyone should feel they must read.” Encouraging people to READ is far more important than insisting they must prioritize reading and analyzing only a small subset of works that have been deemed worthy.
How to know if a book is great?
-You learn something about life from the book. It impacts you.
Very nice - absolutely agree :)
Excellent point regarding our stages of life and its impact on our reading. At 43, I have more patience for classics, and am more reflective having experienced life more fully than when I began devouring books in my teens.
I feel crime and punishment and brothers karamozov have a same central theme.Inspite of the plot , characters and setting being different there's a common thread of thinking that runs in these two novels .For instance, raskolnikov and Mitya both face imprisonment and through hard labour and suffering atone for their sins .Also , Dostoevsky believes so much in the conscience and there are so many biblical references in his books. His books are very insightful just like the Bible.
Dostoyevsky thoroughly lived the Bible. Bound hand and foot in the Siberian penal camps, he read and reread the New Testament endlessly. You can definitely see that in his mature works!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy That's so amazing . According to his philosophy one can redeem himself through suffering. I too love reading the Bible.Its one of the greatest works of literature too.
@@sarahdias6477 Absolutely agree!
There is so much dostojewski in dostojewski its unbelievable. There so much Eta Hoffmann (he wrote the nutcracker, the sandman, the devils elixirs) in dostojewski. You see it in its early work the double but also in the setting in the setting of brothers karamazow. And of course the psychologly torn characters...
But back to dostojewski: there are so many themes returning in his work and in so new and fresh manners it's unbelievable...
*epilepsy (getting more negatively treated as dostojewski'condition worsened): the idiot, Demons, brothers karamazow
*the imprisoned character who has a women that supports him from without: raskolnikov, the adolescent, brothers karamazow
*the "chuck": the eternal husband, raskolnikov
*of course atheism and religion and crumbling morality: in every on of his great 5 last novels and beyond
*political ideology and revolution: the idiot, Demons (of course), raskolnikov, the crocodile (a very good short story)
*money and gambling: the player, the Adolescent
And furthermore there are even specific scenes and settings which dostojewski reused and which got stuck in my mind:
*raskolnikov and brothers karamazow: raskolnikov sees the person which molested Dunja in the window of a restaurant in the second flor. He goes up and they have a pretty important conversation. Similarly aljoscha sees ivan also in a restaurant on the second floor. He goes up there and ivan tells him about the suffering of innocent children, his suicidal thoughts and the parable of the great Inquisitor...
*the scene where the protagonist in the double well meets his double on a dark and foggy street is very similar to the scene in Demons where stawrogin meets a prisoner who broke out of jail and there he agrees (in a way) to pay him if he kills his wife.
*..........
Dostojewski is probably my favorite novelist as you might imagine. Man, I have to go pick up some of his books again!
Edit:
*the alcoholic with a bad conscience who knows he's wrong but can't fix it: mitja (karamazow) and marmeladov (raskolnikov), the kind of spy in idiot (I forgot his name)
* the holy munk: Demons and karamazow
What makes a novel a classic, verses any other? Something that has somewhat puzzled me, although most of it should be intuitive. This very fine video answered most of it for me, and I thank Mr. EcEvoy very much.
I've just finished Samuel Richardson's Clarrisa, and now I feel I've lost a companion, a teacher and friend.
I completely relate to that! I find that I've been missing Clarissa myself recently. I can't wait to read it again!
Currently devouring all your videos, love from The States!❤️❤️❤️
Aw, thank you, Scarlett :) I'm so happy to have you watching!
Hello Ben - thank you for this. The point that resonated most strongly with me is that a great book should elicit a strong visceral reaction. I am reading Regeneration by Pat Barker right now. It is uncomfortable. It is reflecting on the past and is making me think about the deeper question of how are we to live in the present. Love your work, my friend.
Hello Kim :) I've had Regeneration on my bookshelf for a while now but have yet to embark upon it. With your recommendation, I look forward to it greatly. And thank you for your kind words as always!
I'm not sure I completely agree with you on many things, especially because I have very little time to reread anything, but my taste is likely off from the usual. When you said you had difficulty reading Proust, I had a sort of epiphany for the way he handled narrative and it was not hard to digest. It wasn't Finnegans Wake.
Keep at it. You are relatively convincing and not offensive...Most writing and literature people are the latter.
I found it interesting that P. G. Wodehouse and Raymond Chandler both went to Dulwich College. I think _entertainment_ is the index of great literature. Face it, you yourself are entertained by the analysis lavished on these masterpieces.
This video reminds me of a graph, by J. Evan Pritchard, plotting _Perfection_ on the horizontal axis and _Importance_ on the vertical axis. You know, in _Dead Poet's Society?_
Also, Rand's _The Fountainhead_ is a better book (more entertaining, if you will) than _Atlas Shrugged._
My favorite channel right now !!
Thank you, Edgar :)
Great video Ben! Quality content as always! 👏👏👏 Just finished Anna Karenina and it was life changing. Took two months..nice and slow
Thank you :) And nice one on finishing AK. It's certainly a life-changing book, and two months is a nice pace. Will you reread or read more Tolstoy now?
@@BenjaminMcEvoy oh I definitely intend to reread it. I'm rereading War and Peace this year. I know with both I will get far more from the subsequent rereads..I'm starting Doctor Zhivago next! But I'm currently reading Nabokov's lecture on Anna K. Going down a rabbit hole as you see! And I also have another non fiction book called Creating Anna Karenina on the pipeline.
@@1siddynickhead Wonderful stuff. Do let me know what you think of Doctor Zhivago - it's been on my TBR since forever (great film version). Nabokov's lectures are pretty rad - it would have been awesome to have listened to them live! I've just picked up that Creating Anna Karenina - sounds like a good read!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy I was thinking the same thing when I was reading! It would have been amazing to attend one of his lectures! He's so sarcastic and loves picking on Dostoyevsky for some reason 🤣 I learned a lot that I had missed in Anna K. especially regarding the double nightmare she and Vronsky share. Gave me chills! Will definitely let you know how Doctor Zhivago goes:) Everyone says it's a home run, hopefully they are right!
@@BenjaminMcEvoy Hi Ben, just thought I'd pop in and tell you how Doctor Zhivago is going. It's a slow burner and take a while to get going but once it does, it's actually pretty incredible. Just passed the halfway mark and it's as riveting as anything Tolstoy could conjure up.
I noticed you have mentioned Rand a few times in your videos. Curious what your thoughts on Atlas Shrugged are. Although I consider myself an Objectivist, or at the very least, a fan of Rand’s nonfiction and philosophical writings, I am not the biggest fan of her fiction. I really enjoyed her novella Anthem and am currently reading The Fountainhead, but there were aspects of Atlas that just did not jive with me, even when I agreed with the thematic implications. Hope that makes sense and keep up the great work!
I would likely side with Rand herself in thinking she didn't really excel as a writer of fiction. You'll likely know that she saw her novels basically only as a vehicle for her philosophy, and it seems like those who are fans of hers fall in love with one of her big books because of the ideas running underneath them, then graduate to her letters and non-fiction. I was first turned onto Rand by a great friend of mine who put Atlas Shrugged in his top three favourite books alongside Anna Karenina and Les Misérables, and also had a lot of connections with Rand, her editors and biographers, and Nathaniel Brandon. Like you, Cody, whilst I found the thematic implications of Atlas to be profound, there definitely were aspects that didn't jive with me either. I can certainly see why many have a strong visceral negative reaction to her - in the same way some will have strong negative reactions to any die-hard libertarian capitalist. Many will argue her characters to be one-dimensional etc but there are genuine moments of good aestheticism in Atlas if one reads it for what it is. For now though, I would certainly be excited to talk more in-depth about her :)
Is this your new bookshelf?You did not mention about it in your bookshelf tour video.
This is indeed a new bookshelf :) Perhaps a new tour is required!
Just perfect!
honestly most of the time it is the prose that makes or breaks a book
I truly appreciate your channel
And I would live to have you read one of my books.
How about The Lord of thzze Rings? Just where does the plain of it's greatness lie?
Theodore Dreiser, James Whitcomb Riley and Booth Tarkington are not much read outside Indiana now. They may be rediscovered at some point or not. Ayn Rand, in the words of Elizabeth Strout's Olive Kitteridge, "you're not so much." What makes that great anywhere outside an engineering campus? Yeah, she elicited a micro and macro response alright. Nice photo of James Dean. Edna Ferber not read much now either, stream of conciousness makes about as much sense as Ayn Rand.
I agree with you about Ayn Rand. I've read Wattpad fanfics of My Little Pony that were more coherent and better written than Rand's propagandistic drivel. I think these 2 quotes sum up Rand's pathetic pseudo-intellectual propagandistic piss on paper:
"Saint Petersburg in revolt gave us Vladimir Nabokov, Isaiah Berlin, and Ayn Rand. The first was a novelist, the second a philosopher. The third was neither but thought she was both."
- Corey Robin
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen years old's life: _The Lord of the Rings_ and _Atlas Shrugged_ . One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with it's unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs. "
- John Rogers
That about sums it up.
@@ajiththomas2465 Terrific quotes
Very nice. I'll have to search those out. I'm looking forward to the Ayn Rand podcast I have in the works - anticipating some interesting division! :)
@@BenjaminMcEvoy You are brave and we cannot all like the same writers but she literally made my skin crawl.
@@susprime7018
I agree with you there, SuS Prime. Reading Ayn Rand made my skin crawl, especially because I possess something a lot of Ayn Rand fanatics lack...critical thinking. Rand's works are perfect for sociopaths who love the rich and hate the poor and working class. In fact, that's the basic gist of Rand's so-called philosophy "Objectivism". It has almost nothing to do with rationality or objectivity and everything to do with defending the ultra rich and hating the poor and working class or as she described the latter, "parasites".
I read Atlas Shrugged a while ago and what a miserable waste of hours that endeavor was. If you're interested and if you have the time, there's this great review of Atlas Shrugged by a leftist CZcamsr named Radical Reviewer. Just search up "radical reviewer Atlas shrugged" and you'll see it. It does a great job of explaining the plot of Atlas Shrugged, providing a critical analysis of it, and exposes how immature, irrational, and incoherent the book is from a plot-based, character-based, and ideology-based perspective. It's well worth the watch and was a much better and shorter way of consuming Atlas Shrugged than the skin crawling and soul damaging method of reading the book myself. Also check out Knowing Better's video on American Libertarianism to see how much of a pretentious and ridiculous clown Ayn Rand was on real life.