/lit/
I'm curious. What made the greats great? Was it because they wrote about things no one ever wrote about before? Or is it because of the way they wrote and they're ability to put out page after page of solid work? Give an example of a writer you consider to have been truly great and the reasons why you believe so.
Shakespeare, William. Read complete works between 14 and 15. One would like to have filmed him in the role of the King's Ghost. His verbal poetic texture is the greatest the world has ever known, and immensely superior to the structure of his plays as plays. It is the metaphor that is the thing, not the play. A genius.
>>7663991
Bump for hugely under-rated subject proposed in the thread
>>7663991
They had great publicists.
>>7663996
>>7665100
that's quite simplistic, but may hold some truth
>>7663991
having compelling prose, plot, themes, and balancing or unbalancing them all in accordance with their times, capturing some piece of their mind, some minds shine much much more than others. Some are ideologues, some are empty headed professors, some are pedophiles. Literature is just the soul of a man on paper. They say photographs stole men's souls, but the real theft is literature, dead men unable to rest, unable to sleep, when their spines are cracked day after day.
>>7663991
Talent + being in the right place at the right time
>>7663991
Read great works of literature and find out yourself.