The winner of last week's Great Wednesday Compare (Alice Munro Vs. Lewis Carroll), with a final score of 10-3, was Lewis Carroll.Without having even read Lewis Carroll, I still would have voted for him last week. No, I don't own Alice In Wonderland on DVD or know all the lyrics to Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit," in fact it has more to do with my dislike for Munro's writing than any appreciation for Carroll. I know Munro won the Wednesday Compares two weeks in a row (even against Margaret Laurence, for goodness sakes), so I run the risk of offending her fans, but here I go: Alice Munro is not the queen of the short story. In fact, she takes the short out of the short story. I find her stories tedious, hiding behind a veil of ambiguity for the sake of supposed profundity, unrealistic, and pretentious. Whew. There. Glad I got that off my chest. Now feel free to defend her honour, revoke my citizenship, do what you have to do. At least she lost.
Moving on to this week's contender, it's someone perhaps a little more similar to Lewis Carroll.
Remember, vote simply by adding your comment below, base it on whatever merit you choose, voting does not end until Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. (June 17th, 2008), and please spread the word!
Who's better?
20 comments:
I have to weigh in on this one: J.R.R. Tolkien, far and away, just on the strength of The Lord of the Rings.
Carroll once more. I had plod through The Lord of the Rings!
Ooooh...tough call. I'm sticking with Carroll though.
Carroll by a mile. I may be in the minority, but I absolutely hate anything to do with "Lord of the Rings," and find it among the most boring literature and movies of them all.
Carroll. He's so quotable!
This is an easy one for me: Tolkein!
And if spelling counts, I mean "Tolkien"!
Tolkien this week, I think.
Wow, I'm surprised how close it is this week..I thought for sure Tolkien would have this one in the bag!
My vote is for Tolkien.
PS-"Munro takes the short out of the short story" is my new favorite sentence..nice one!
Lewis Carroll
A battle of two Oxford dons! Mathematician vs. linguist. Photographer of naked little girls vs. inventor of elvish languages. I vote for the one with the less questionable hobby. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings hasn't stood up to re-reading for me, but when I was thirteen it's what turned me into a reader.
Yes, Rob Hardy, I agree. How can one seriously consider Carroll with his predilection that you mentioned? And if this can count as another vote, John, then count it for Tolkien. ;)
As for boring, what the heck is that Jabberwocky thing about anyway? I mean, really...:)
Lewis carol! I have loved his books longer.
I am holding a contest, go and check it out.
Absolutely Tolkien!
Tolkien for The Hobbit, not Rings.
I'm going to go with Tolkien on this one. If not for him, what would the Lord of the Rings geeks have to argue about?
Tolkien for me...
I'm with justareadingfool and Rob Hardy on this one. Although I loved Carroll's Through the Looking Glass as a child, when I discovered he had a prediliction for little girls I lost my taste for him. Tolkien, on the other hand, gets better with every reading.
I'll take Lewis Carroll over that ridiculous, droning bore Tolkien any day of the week. As for Carroll's photos of young girls, while they certainly aren't appropriate in today's world, there is no evidence that he was actaully a paedophile, even though his behaviour is certainly at odds with our modern behavioural standards.
To quote performance poet Scroobius Pip: Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile; some people are just nice.
Gotta go for Tolkien.
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