1786ef87   
   XPost: alt.books.cs-lewis, rec.arts.books, rec.arts.books.childrens   
   XPost: rec.arts.books.tolkien   
   From: news@pointerstop.ca   
      
   Ruritanian Muglug wrote:   
      
   > These best of lists are generally rather silly and limited in scope to   
   > the group (writers, critics, general public, librarians) generating   
   > them.  I'm not suggesting these are books one shouldn't read, just   
   > that there are others that are much better.  In the case of this   
   > particular list, besides being anglocentric there isn't a single work   
   > more than 150 years old -- oh that's right -- the English language   
   > wasn't developped until 1850.   
      
   Well, no, it wasn't really.  Anything much older than that is far from   
   simple to read.  Have you ever seen the original Shakespeare?   
      
   > Furthermore, I'm sorry, but I think Homer's "Odyssey" is   
   > a wee bit more important a work than the "Lord of the Rings"   
      
   OK, just a "wee" bit...   
      
   > (and   
   > personally I think E.R. Eddison's "The Worm Ouroboros" is a more   
   > seminal work of high fantasy than LOTR,   
   !   
   > not to mention that some of   
   > James Branch Cabell's fantasies are much more clever).   
   !!!!!   
      
   > As for "To Kill a Mockingbird" -- while its message of racial   
   > tolerance is an important one (though some would argue that having the   
   > main protagonist an educated white lawyer and the 'victim' a poor   
   > black man without enough intestinal fortitude to choose anything other   
   > than suicide -- actually supports rather than breaks down racial   
   > stereotypes), were works such as  Mark Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" or   
   > (forget the author's name)   
      
   Harriet Beecher Stowe, I believe.   
      
   > "Uncle Tom's Cabin" not just as important   
   > in breaking down such barriers?   
      
   I don't think Huckleberry Finn did anything of the sort, and much as I love   
   Mark Twain, I still think /To Kill a Mockingbird/ is a better book.  /Uncle   
   Tom's Cabin/ is another hole in my education...   
      
   > As with any list, it's easy to tear it apart if one puts one mind to   
   > it, but that doesn't really help anyone, and if such a list incites   
   > one more person to read, rather than watch 'reality' TV or play video   
   > games on their cell phones, I'm all for it.   
      
   Absolutely.   
   --   
   derek   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)