"Who's your favorite author?"

[Agathon]

Originally posted by loops
Steinbeck

This is about the only sensible suggestion I've seen. The rest of you are illiterate slime!!!!!

[-Jrabbit]

Well, at least we're not pretentious slime.

[Ramo]

You must published an English translation sometime. I tried reading "The Satanic Verses," the words appeared to be English, but the sentences made no sense.

All of Rushdie's novels were written in English...

[Lancer]

British english? That is pretty much meaningless.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Well, at least we're not pretentious slime.

?

Have you ever read Steinbeck? He's one of the least pretentious novelists ever to have been published. His greatness lies in the fact that pretty much anyone can pick up his books and get full measure from them, as well as his mastery of both the comic and tragic aspects of life. In that respect he is a superior artist to someone like James Joyce, who is incapable of reducing great ideas to simple, understandable forms.

[Whaleboy]

Jill Paton-Walsh

[-Jrabbit]

Yes, I've read Steinbeck. But the topic isn't "who's the greatest" or "least pretentious." Rather, it's "who's your favorite."

Just to be clear: It was you I was calling pretentious.

[Whaleboy]

British english? That is pretty much meaningless.

It least we've grasped the idea of the letter "u".

[Donegeal]

Originally posted by Zkribbler


Just Niven? I've found that although he creates great worlds, his plots are sluggish.

On the other hand, Pournelle has engrossing plots, but his worlds are merely Earthlike replicas.

On the third hand, together, they make a great writing team

The question posted was singular. Thus, my answer was singular.

My favorite book, however, is a Niven/Pournelle collaboration.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Yes, I've read Steinbeck. But the topic isn't "who's the greatest" or "least pretentious." Rather, it's "who's your favorite."

Just to be clear: It was you I was calling pretentious.

There's nothing pretentious about not being enamoured of tripe.

[-Jrabbit]

Pretentious (adj)
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possesed.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yep, that describes Aggie

Originally posted by Ramo
All of Rushdie's novels were written in English...

He was joking... he couldn't get past the florid language Rushdie uses.

[Harovan]

Umberto Eco
Stanislaw Lem

[Alinestra Covelia]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Pretentious (adj)
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possesed.

This calls for me to invoke the ghost of my old roommate, HuManBing. This is his urbandictionary.com definition:

pretentiosity
25 up, 2 down

The state or act of being pretentious - affecting an air of superiority or culture where none truly exists.

"The latest discovery of Jane Austen's unprinted masterpiece, 'Pointlessness and Pretentiosity', brings together the dramatic cycle with a fitting juxtaposition of anagnorisis and perepetaea, providing the quintessential climax and denouement if you will, to a genre that is already fucking full of shit to be honest."

Siskel and Ebert, "Two-Birdies-Up Film Reviews"
by HMB Mar 27, 2003

Edit: I just looked around at HMB's other urbandictionary.com definitions. The man's been busy! Several of them involve a woman named AC which I take to be me. The conversation for rolling the mouse wheel is almost verbatim an actual conversation we had.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by -Jrabbit
Pretentious (adj)
Attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possesed.

You just can't accept that some people have sophisticated tastes in some things, can you? If it makes you feel any better, I'm fond of AC/DC (the staple of New Zealand 80s male culture).

Why would I be attempting to impress people by saying that sort of stuff here? It's sure to prompt a negative reaction, as it did with you, which makes a mockery of your accusation.