The Subversives discussion

So, I took Patrick's suggestion and checked out Modern Library's Top 100. It actually looks like an interesting place to start because:

1. They offer more than one Top 100 list
2. They have a cool, comprehensive site
3. They offer "talking points" to help build your own or modify their list.

Check it out:
http://www.randomhouse.com/modernlibr...

edited to add: After reading through the various Top 100's on the site, I subjectively prefer the Radcliffe Rival Top 100.

The reader's list made my eyes bleed. "Battlefield Earth" doesn't make it to the top of my science fiction novels, much less the greatest novels of the 20th century.

Choking back bile,
Brian

Um....yeah... I think it's a little creepy how much Ayn Rand and L. Ron Hubbard is at the top of the "readers" list. I think the Scientologist got hold of the link and stuffed the ballot box. No one I know (many of whom are total scifi geeks) would put anything L. Ron wrote anywhere but the trash bin.

I guess we COULD solve the energy crisis if we all burned L. Ron for heat.

Reminds me of the sewer mutant library in Futurama, made exclusively from things flushed down other people's toilets. It was "nothing...but crumpled porno and Ayn Rand."

In other shocking news, I actually liked "The Fountainhead," but could smell polemic underneath all trappings of fiction (this from the guy who loves Orwell). I would have suggested it for the subversive books if I hadn't had a copy of it shoved down my throat every time I got into a political argument.

The best thing about The Fountainhead was the $500 prize I won for writing an essay about it in high school.

That's so funny you said that, Christina! My best friend and I were also asked by our English teacher to read the Fountainhead and submit an essay in order to win some $$$. My friend, a much more disciplined reader but also a huge fan of the dreadful Infinite Jest, actually finished it and I think even write the essay. I couldn't get past page 75 or so.

Congratulations to you for winning the contest!