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"And you would be flabbergasted at the number of bicycles that are half-human"
Salon celebrates St. Patrick's Day with a tribute to Ireland's greatest author, the late Flann O'Brien.
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|3.17.05 @ 5:02PM|#
i know this makes me a jerk, but i don't think flann o'brien is that funny. i kinda fell asleep during the third policeman.
Jesse Walker|3.17.05 @ 6:42PM|#
To each his own. I think it may be the funniest novel ever written.
|3.17.05 @ 7:42PM|#
Ireland's greatest author? You are ought of your fucking mind Walker.
Warren|3.17.05 @ 7:55PM|#
No shit Jesse. Ever read any Wilde?
Jesse Walker|3.17.05 @ 8:04PM|#
Of course I've read Wilde, along with Yeats, Joyce, Shaw, Swift, and the others. Of the big names, I suppose Swift would come closest to O'Brien in my eccentric personal pantheon.
Any other Mervyn Wall fans out there? The Unfortunate Fursey is a brilliant book.
Warren|3.17.05 @ 8:43PM|#
Swift was a boob, elevated to the literary pantheon by illiterate masses who mistake vulgar caricature for witty eloquence.
|3.17.05 @ 9:04PM|#
Warren,
Well, Swift was mostly a prose satirist and journalist, so I think lumping him in with folks Joyce is incorrect. My favorite writings by Swift are The Battle of the Books and A Tale of a Tub.
|3.17.05 @ 9:07PM|#
Warren,
Anyway, I await your attack on the work of the greatest English poet: Alexander Pope. :)
Jesse Walker|3.17.05 @ 9:11PM|#
Swift was the forefather of Twain, Bierce, and Mencken. Wilde was the forefather of Robert Smith and Morrissey. I think the choice is clear.
(I kid, I kid. Wilde's OK.)
|3.17.05 @ 9:16PM|#
But the Greatest Irishman of All Time is, hands down, Arthur Guinness. Grant me that one, me boyos.
|3.17.05 @ 9:19PM|#
Enderby,
Brilliant!
|3.17.05 @ 9:22PM|#
Gary,
Cheers, mate!
|3.17.05 @ 10:47PM|#
"To each his own. I think it may be the funniest novel ever written."
maybe it's because my edition had a foreward which spoiled the big surprise without any forewarning.
rather forward of it, really.
Andrew|3.18.05 @ 11:38AM|#
Fans of Flann O'Brien (particularly The Third Policeman) should investigate his modern imitator Robert Rankin. Start with the Brentford Trilogy.
|3.18.05 @ 8:14PM|#
Beg to disagree, Andrew, but a true Eirephile should start with a pint o' Guinness.
Fuck green beer!