Which author have you read that seems the most intelligent? Not

Can you give us some examples?

>>7666603
Bertrand Russell.

But I know he's fairly basic. I know there are probably quite a few people out there that I don't know of or can't read because they speak in some weird quasi-english impenetrable academia language

>>7666589
Check out Dorothy Sayers.

Roxanne Gay

Goethe, Borges

Only name that comes to me for me as contemporary as it may be - Foster Wallace

>>7666589
Hume and Gibbon
Marquez
Borges
Nabakov
Sylvia Plath
Goethe
Byron
Churchill
Tolstoy

>>7666589
DFW

>>7666772
kek

>>7666776
I used to think Borges too, but hearing Bloom say his writing is limited to the same 4 or 5 themes really made that fact stand out.

C.S. Lewis
Arthur Conan Doyle

Wallace and Hitchens

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I don't always agree 100% with him, but his intellect is truly awesome.

ITT we don't understand the difference between knowledge and intelligence

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>>7666589

>>7666589
Bob Jessop

>>7666589
Gass and Gaddis never cease to surprise me with how intelligent they are.

>>7666809
does that makes him "less" intelligent?

>>7667184
Fuck off meme faggot

>>7666589

I admire Ezra Pound even if more than half his lyrics suck. The man was brilliant.

Thomas Browne

John Milton though I'm not a big fan of his longer works. A genius though imo a dry poet

Whitman was a genius, though just fucking lazy after about 1866

Dante

Kant though I'm not a big fan of philosophy

certainly Hegel as well

Heidegger too

Chaucer for sure

Herman Melville strikes me as a very intelligent man who would blush and knock you out in a bar if you said "hey I saw u at the library (:"

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>>7666589
Oswald spengler, Julius Evola, and David Duke.

George Orwell.

>>7667386
You first, retard. It must suck to be too stupid to enjoy two of the greatest writers ever.

>>7666589
Carlyle seems really, really smart

I can't see writers of fiction as intelligent. Creative, well read, interesting but true intelligence is reserved for sciences and maths for me.

>>7666589
>Which author have you read that seems the most intelligent?
Jules Verne

>>7668130
That's because you're an autismal subhuman.

>>7668130
I mean, most people write both anyways

>>7666803
>DFW

yeah, his interviews and talks are always a great listen

>>7668564
yeah if u think banal and mediocre "observations" are interesting, stay pleb, dweeb

>>7666589
Orwell and Asimov are two that come to mind right away.

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The Thomas Trinity:

Aquinas, Mann, Pynchon

>>7666809
It really isn't, though. Try his poetry or essays. Much more diverse than the short stories

>>7668130
It takes more than just creativity to engineer a piece of literature. And if gifted scientists/mathematicians don't inherently have more potential to create literature, then what is that creative power other than some kind of other intelligence? Maybe a lesser kind, but it's distinct and not necessarily possessed by those with the "true" kind.

umberto eco
thomas mann

>>7668626
No Bernhard? Plen.

Nietzsche just radiates overwhelming intelligence off every page.

>>7666809
So he's not intelligent just because he's obsessed with time and repetition? I don't think you know what intelligent means.

>>7668130
>true intelligence
Y'know, it's kind of ironic that you hold intelligence in such high regard, because, actually, you're kind of a retard.

>>7669031
What do you do if you're in this situation? Reading more just makes me pretentious, not smart.

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>>7667386

>>7666809

I want to agree with this until I remember that every writer does this

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>>7668130
>true intelligence

>>7666589
Joseph McElroy and Gene Wolfe strike me as particularly sharp living writers. They were both engineers who picked up writing later in life, which makes me think they have a lot going on in their heads. They both were respected STEM-autists but also managed to become very respected writers. Most people would be very pleased with accomplishing one of those things and then just stop trying new things.

>>7669028
he's stupid because he's limited, boring and a shit writer.

>>7669080
He's limited maybe, but the other 2 are just your plebness showing.

>>7666589

Really smart people don't waste their time with fiction. It's purely the domain of self-deluded jokers.

>>7669080
>boring
What's your idea of an "exciting" author, then? If not Borges?

>>7666757
I see her name come up on Twitter all the time. What has she written that you liked?

>>7666589
In philosophy (and, thus, over all), Kant.
In fiction, probably Proust? Who knows?

>>7666589
gibbon

Ian Tregillis seems to have a really amazing knowledge of christianity and physics, and uses the combination to beautifully describe the kind of sensations ineffable entities might experience. The fact that he does that in a noir novel is absolutely fantastic.

Also, this isn't really /lit/ per say, but I have a set of cookbooks by Nathan Myhrvold and the guy is a fucking genius with regards to bio/organic chemistry and the culinary arts. Pretty much every successful molecular gastronomer is

>>7668391
^this