Notably, Terry Pratchett requested his unfinished and unpublished works be destroyed as well. Actually he was specific, he requested that his computer and anything he was working on be run over with a steamroller. Not exaggerating or making that up. The manager of the estate, Rob Wilkins, dutifully did so. No one can ever accuse Sir Terry of lacking clear communication skills.

@mrroboshadow

4 жыл бұрын

is it weird that i unfortunately haven't read many of his works but believe this immediately?

Another writer who disowned much of his work was Geoffrey Chaucer, more or less the father of English literature and definitely the greatest English writer before Shakespeare. Near the end of his life, he recanted all his secular works, wanting only his religious writings and translations to be remembered. Nonetheless, Chaucer’s religious writings are almost forgotten now, while everybody still reads “The Canterbury Tales.”

@triumphant39

5 жыл бұрын

Sounds like they captured his soul before he died, that is part of the scam isn't it?

@wellesradio

5 жыл бұрын

triumphant39 what does that even mean?

@NoNameC68

5 жыл бұрын

Whered you hear that?

@Peecamarke

5 жыл бұрын

Da what tales??

@marioacosta-warren921

5 жыл бұрын

The Canterbury Tales. They re a famous Mideival era work. Without spoilers it’s a bunch of people like 24, each defined by their job I.e. Baker,Priest, Monk, Knight, whore etc. they are on the road to Canterbury and one person proposes they tell stories to pass the time and the winner gets a big feast at the end.

Twain also wrote his autobiography but refused to allow it to be published until 100 years after his death.

"The only two other Russian writers you've heard of, Nabokov and Dostoevsky." Tolstoy and Pushkin called; apparently they think I've heard of more than two Russian writers.

@goneutt

4 жыл бұрын

Jon S Ayn Rand is a Russian novelist

@JonPITBZN

4 жыл бұрын

@@goneutt, I have a hard time counting her because her novels are so American.

@Seedyrom247

4 жыл бұрын

I’ve heard Putin ghostwrites under the pseudonym “Trump”

@lukeives7396

3 жыл бұрын

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn made 3 handwritten letters about other authors but....

@Zach-qs2bw

3 жыл бұрын

That part made me legit laugh because I immediately thought about nabokov and dostoevsky before simon said them Who ever wrote the script for the vid if your reading this bravo on having me pegged

I can’t decide which I love more, the writing in this episode or Simon’s deliciously snarky delivery. Brilliant!

2:30 "Killer Trucks Stephen - REALLY?" Elon Musk - Hold my beer

@castlewhore2007

5 жыл бұрын

vizionthing 😂

@johnyzero2000

5 жыл бұрын

I love Maximum Overdrive it's a lot of fun.

This is by far the most informative channel on KZread. Thank you Simon for the endless hours of interesting information!

Goddammit, I had a copy of Rage back in the 80's. Wish I'd kept it - I could use $500 these days.

@GregMikeska

3 жыл бұрын

O9o

Long time subscriber to this channel and tifo. Never stop making great videos. I look forward to seeing a new video every morning when I get off working third shift. Thank you.

I absolutely love this video so much. You have the most interesting top 10 lists. You manage to keep them fresh and not run out of source material. Keep up the amazing work.

"Yeet" - Mark Twain

I'm a simple man... I see someone put Tintin in the thumbnail, I click. The author and comic have a fascinating history and Tintin will always be my favorite series.

I've actually heard of Tolstoy.

@ViveMeorLeti

5 жыл бұрын

My first thought as well. I would consider him significantly more well-known than Nabokov (yes, Lolita is probably more well-known and culturally relevant these days that anything by either Tolstoy or Dostoevsky, but the fame of the creation and the creator is absolutely not the same thing).

@SAHogan-ih3bo

5 жыл бұрын

V: Beat me to it!

@ke6nber

5 жыл бұрын

I think you're lying. I think you haven't actually heard of Tolstoy. ;-)

@nhh28

5 жыл бұрын

Also Anton Chekhov!

@ryoohki23

5 жыл бұрын

Ivan Turgenev

I would love to win the Booker Prize and then announce that I was dedicating myself to my true passion of My Little Pony fanfic.

@anne-droid7739

5 жыл бұрын

No no, son, you're thinking too small. You have to win The Booker Prize FOR your My Little Pony fanfic!

*They treat their work like my father treats me*

I am always amazed at the things I learn from listening to you. Thank you 😊

Love this video. It’s very captivating!

Simon, a triumph. Well done on this one.

The best one of your videos so far.

Tintin in the Land of the Soviets is interesting because it's some of Herge's earliest work. And being in black and white gives it a sparseness that's missing in his later color work.

I can't say I had read any of them at the time, but I had heard of Tolstoy, Chekhov, Turgenev, Pushkin, Pasternak and Bulgakov as well as Nabokov and Dostoyevsky before I got out of a Canadian high school. Some because teachers or other assigned readings referred to them, some because newspaper columnists or other elements of the outside culture periodically referred to them. Also Solzhenitsyn. Then again, it was the 80s and everybody was supposed to just love the Russians during the period after 1985. Even American sitcoms got in on it- Family Ties did one in which Alex befriended a Russian chess rival, Head of the Class did a 2 part episode in which the characters actually visited Russia [and the cast and crew actually did so and filmed there]. I'd like to say I first learned about Anton Chekhov when the latter show had the character Simone have a sort of dreamy infatuation with the author, but I think I had already heard of him either from reading that the Star Trek character Chekov was loosely and inaccurately named for him, or from having heard of the literary concept of "Chekhov's Gun". Either way, Russian literature has loomed a little larger in the North American mind than you suggest over all of the postwar era.

thanks, i loved this

Ian Fleming was seriously into bondage and spanking/whipping in real life...Reading his biography is like 50 shades of gray, from the perspective of a chain smoking, heavy drinking old guy...

@msthang5366

5 жыл бұрын

christine paris I loved the show BBC did on his life!!

0:35 - N°10 - Ian Fleming, The Spy Who Loved Me 2:20 - N°9 - Stephen King (as Richard Bachman), Rage 3:25 - N°8 - Martin Amis, Invasion of the Space Invaders 4:45 - N°7 - Don DeLillo, Amazons 5:50 - N°6 - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, most of his poetry 7:05 - N°5 - Herge, Tintin in the Land of the Soviets 8:45 - N°4 - Nikolai Gogol, Dead Souls II and III 10:00 - N°3 - Mark Twain, 1601 11:45 - N°2 - William Powell, The Anarchist Cookbook 13:00 - N°1 - Franz Kafka, everything he ever wrote

All of these books, including Rage, will come back once they enter the Public Domain. If people are still reading text books by that point. (About 50 more years.)

Me with all of my middle school fanfiction

@lilbatz

5 жыл бұрын

Put it all in comic book form and monetize that bish!

Why would anyone make fun of Stephen King for writing so much? Jealousy? I mean, it doesn't pose as great literature but each one is a fun ride worth the cover price. I thought a lot of his stories gave the "unspeakable" or "unthinkable" worry a form so we could see it properly and deal with it.

@CptnBillHarris

3 жыл бұрын

After reading On Writing I have a huge amount of respect for King. He writes so much because he loves to write and he works goddamned hard around the clock.

Definitely get some heated conversations in my home... brilliant

"Dante Gabriel Rosetti Buried all of his libretti Thought the matter over, then Went and dug them up again"

Another great video....Simon is awesome. His delivery is great!

@bootywarrior5572

5 жыл бұрын

You’re awesome how bout we go on a date 😏

@SumDumGai5

5 жыл бұрын

@@bootywarrior5572 You don't like women, Fleece.

@bootywarrior5572

5 жыл бұрын

SixPack Shakur (Rep5281) I switched back to woman I likes them and I wants them

@kerryann2041

5 жыл бұрын

@@bootywarrior5572 ahh its all so sudden 😉

@trahapace150

5 жыл бұрын

@@bootywarrior5572 judging by that face I'm not completely sold that is a woman

This video is awesome, that Mark Twain one is Unbelievable lol

You might have mentioned Anthony Burgess, who made it clear in his introduction to A Clockwork Orange that he didn't like the work and was annoyed that it was the book most people remembered him for. He was also annoyed that in the US the final chapter was removed - the main character renounces violence at the end. The Kubrick movie is based on the US release.

I can understand why King regrets to have written "Rage", but that novel remains one of his best works IMHO and I highly recommend reading it.

@elliesaint1984

5 жыл бұрын

NKA23 I already have it is a great book

@arickjohnson9982

5 жыл бұрын

Now it cost $500 so it better be worth it

@dwaynewhite1669

5 жыл бұрын

NKA23 Oddly enough; I read it while in high school and felt myself being quite empathetic towards the kid. Now, that’s not to say I consider him a hero of the story, but it made me view things from a more nuanced approach. Just because someone does something horrible; doesn’t make them evil. Sadly, the reason we will continue to have a problem with mass murder in this country is because we refuse to examine the underlying causes that lead the killers doing what they do. Instead, we just pass them off as mentally unstable, but what we fail to realize is that given enough time under the right amount of pressure; we can all snap.

@KimsLantern

5 жыл бұрын

Dwayne White Couldn’t agree with you more.

@pulsarstargrave256

5 жыл бұрын

NKA23\ I don't understand, either. Should the author of CATCHER IN THE RYE (assuming he was still living) have felt guilty that his book was read by the guy who killed John Lennon? Some use books, religions and philosophies as an EXCUSE to kill but their real motivations are usually anger, hatred and GREED or a combination of these base passions!

Dead Souls is most definately not a first person shooter

@chesterdavis27

5 жыл бұрын

More like a survival horror game methinks

@censusgary

5 жыл бұрын

No, but what’s left of “Dead Souls is an incomplete, but still great book. Give it a read.

@gameblor

5 жыл бұрын

I prefer the dark souls series. Old school, hard core.

@josh420masterB

5 жыл бұрын

The story had a promising start, but led to a pretty lackluster reveal.

@censusgary

5 жыл бұрын

It’s not the plot of “Dead Souls” that’s so wonderful, it’s all the amazing characters and beautiful descriptions in the book. Besides, everything is left unresolved, which is unsurprising given that Gogol destroyed the manuscript of the second volume and never finished the final volume of what was intended to be a three-volume novel.

One of the earliest examples of this is Virgil, ancient Roman poet who wrote the Aeneid. He was on his deathbed without having fully completed his work, and he was unsatisfied with it and asked for it to be destroyed. Thankfully for the history of Western literature and poetry, the emperor Augustus didn't share these feelings and thus Virgil's demands weren't fulfilled.

I love (not sure you can really love his nightmares but rather I highly praise his works) Kafka and I'm so happy they ignored his wishes. You missed the biggest one of all. Leo Tolstoy denounced all his works (especially "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina"). As he got older he became more enamored with the suffering of his peasants and into a very religious man (some say he went crazy). He later condemned his works for praising the land owners and ignoring the peasants (something like that).

As a student in german studies here in europe... i can totally understand why kafka‘s got the first place 💕

Wish most videos where this well optimised for 144p. I mostly browse the internet using mobile data so it's helpful.

"The only 2 other Russian writers you have heard of". So what was Tolstoy?

@JayMoreau

5 жыл бұрын

Tobias Ommer Checkov?

@janetmiller2160

5 жыл бұрын

Solzhenitsyn?

@leighfoulkes7297

5 жыл бұрын

Lol, Tolstoy should actually be on this list.

@blueberrypanquakes

5 жыл бұрын

@@janetmiller2160 I was gonna say...

@ithemba

5 жыл бұрын

Maxim Gorki, Isaac Babel, Mikhail Bulgakov, Wassili Grossman, Alexander Pushkin, Michail Sholochov, Boris Pasternak, Ilja Ehrenburg, Swetlana Alexijewitsch... Russian literature is far more important for world literature than the english novels, tbh...

Great video! Although William Powell passed away in 2017. Just a heads up

So a 19th century Russian author wrote two great video games. That's amazing 😍

1:47 The biggest understatement I've heard so far this year.

Lol my chemistry teacher used to laugh at the anarchist cookbook, and tell us that we'd do better looking for a pre 1970's encyclopaedia. He told us he doesn't us doing dumb smeg, just wanted us to get the chemistry right. It put most people off trying the cookbook, because it's no longer a "forbidden" thing; and they knew it wouldn't work.

@andrewsuryali8540

5 жыл бұрын

Actually, some of the recipes will work if your intent is to kill someone. The problem is that you'll be that someone. You actually fell into a logical fallacy trap by listening to your teacher. The fact that the recipes are dangerous to the user does not mean they don't work. They're still dangerous. They can still be used to cause havoc and harm people under the right conditions. That's the real reason sane people make fun of the Cookbook, because we need to maintain the belief of the uselessness of the Cookbook to prevent actually insane people trying out the recipes.

@vickymc9695

5 жыл бұрын

@@andrewsuryali8540 Yep, definitely. We were 16. And the idea of trying to track down a 40 year old book, without amazon, nope. It wasn't something any of us could do with out our parents looking in on it.

The Last Train Out of Prague sounds the the title of a thrilling novel

IMO Clockwork Orange should be on this list, just under Anarchist Cookbook. Neat list otherwise tho-

@thelasthandbook6704

3 жыл бұрын

I don't think Anthony Burgess ever disowned it or tried to have publication of it suspended. He was just irritated that it was what he was most known for. That, and that fact that all American editions left out the last chapter until the late 1980s. (This is probably why Kubrik's movie ends as it does. Despite living in the UK at the time the movie was made, he had read the US edition.)

I love that Martin Amis wrote a book about video games.

You forgot about Harlan Ellison's "Doomsman". Whenever someone would present a copy to him to autograph, he would tear the book up and then reimburse the person the cost of the book. I first heard about it from an acquaintance who was a close friend of Ellison. He said he probably had the only signed copy of the book, managing to sneak it into a pile of other books.

The Anarchist Cookbook was about using violence to bring about social change? When we were teenagers in the early '80's we just thought the book had a lot of cool ways to blow stuff up. The day after Halloween when we blew up a huge pile of jack o'lanterns was the most spectacular.

It's been said on his death bed Johann Goethe stated that he regretted that much of his work was terrible and that he wanted his name removed from it.

Rage is not the first book King ever wrote. Most people think it's Carrie, but that's wrong too. The first novel he ever wrote was actually The Long Walk, but Carrie was the first to be published.

The chap who wrote the Confessions...books, in the 70s, also wrote a Sphere Fiction/Film Tie in novel, based on the Spy Who Loved Me screenplay. Two James Bond books with the same title.

Simon, I think I got smarter just by listening to you read such exquisite lines, works, and names 🤓🤓

Great ending, which I hearty agree with.

There was a paperback version of The Spy Who Loved Me here in the US because my Dad bought it and I read it after he had finished, I think I was in Jr High at the time but it couldn't have been later than early 1966 because he died in a car crash at the end of March 1966.

Powell also attempted to counteract some of the damage done by those utilizing info from Anarchist's Cookbook by going on to be one of the Founders of Food Not Bombs.

Fascinating.

"The only two other Russian authors you've ever heard of: Nobokov and Dostoyevsky" - well, Tolstoy rather comes to mind! Oh, and do Google how to pronounce "whereat", Simon; perhaps not a word in common usage, but equally well, not one that disappeared in Tudor times.

@alexcrossland5453

5 жыл бұрын

also while your at it google Amis.

@alexandriariley5209

5 жыл бұрын

@@alexcrossland5453 is amis an english word? i only know it as a french word

@alexcrossland5453

5 жыл бұрын

its a name, pronounces ay-mis

@dcarter020809

5 жыл бұрын

When's the surgery?

@dextrodemon

5 жыл бұрын

plus doesn't one really think of nabokov as an american author, lolita fits best with other american novels of the time, and obviously is written in english, and he had lived in america for 15 years or so when he wrote it.

This channel is very different from my own channel but it's nice.

Anyone who has ever posted an essay or a rant, or created a meme has experienced that regret years, or even days later. Today, we have the luxury of being able to delete our works once we reassess them and see they are not as cogent or cool as we had thought when intoxicated with the zeal that produced them.

@brutallyhonest123

5 жыл бұрын

You really dont understand how the internet works.

@ablemagawitch

5 жыл бұрын

Deleting your work in an attempt to hiding usually backfires. Let it fade into the background and become lost in the noise.

You would probably never run out of options for more of these videos especially if you add movies/games.

Glad to see Ian Fleming's original version of The Spy Who Loved Me made the list- still, despite his request, paperback reprints of this James Bond novel are still on hand. Surprised Herge disavowed Tintin in the Land of the Soviet. It seemed out of step given the Cold War at the time.

"The only two Russian authors you'v ever heard of- Nobokov and Dostoyevsky" This is joke right. It is like to say "The only two French autors you've ever heard of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and Victor Hugo" or Charles Dickens and Duglas Adams for the British autors. It is a crazy sentense.

@brutallyhonest123

5 жыл бұрын

Oh look. Someone who can barely type is offended over literature.

@mysteriousgamerlegend7895

5 жыл бұрын

Living up to the name

8:50 I totally thought this was a video game title too.

At 8:20, i don't know who that's supposed to be but it isn't Herge.

@robinpoppert3280

5 жыл бұрын

Jack .Hands I was wondering the same thing. Totally not Hergé

@frankenstein9691

5 жыл бұрын

No. Not Herge. Blistering Barnacles!!!!

Frankly, I don't like a lot of videos on this channel. But some of them are just brilliant, like this one. You mixed works that were published, and those that were destroyed forever, but I don't mind that.

Anarchy and violence do not necessarily have to go together.

Oh and you seem to be unaware that William Powell died on 11 July 2016, in Canada.

8:36 no fanboy needed. Official colourised editions have been available since 2017

me two hours after I finish any illustration tbh lol;;;

Here’s an interesting addition to the list. “A Clockwork Orange” by Anthony Burgess. He absolutely detests this piece of work... which is of course his most famous.

@jamesoblivion

5 жыл бұрын

Burgess made peace with the book, but was always resentful that it overshadowed what he rightly considered an impressive body of superior writing.

@KingRandor82

5 жыл бұрын

supposedly, he wrote it for a quick paycheck and that was it; it meant nothing to him.

I tried to read the original spy who loved me...weird

Simon says "Martin Amis" while I'm not paying attention... I'm suddenly paying very close attention, wondering if I just heard that correctly... I didn't...

Pet Semetary could have been on here too. He got the idea after his child almost got hit by a truck, like in the book. He was scared shitless, came up with the story, and was so disgusted with it he wanted to throw it out. His wife convinced him to keep it. I think he had it hidden for years.

I actually did a book report on Rage in high school about a year before Columbine. Didn't know the book was expensive. I should probably try to sell mine.

My 11 year old has been reading Tintin for years. They're great stories!

@ctrlaltdestroy8244

3 жыл бұрын

Your 11 year old is a commie

@flipphone582

3 жыл бұрын

@@ctrlaltdestroy8244 You're mean.

I own a couple of these. I never knew Hergé disavowed that work.

@juttamaier2111

5 жыл бұрын

I also cannot understand the fuss they are making about the storyline in Tintin in Congo. I regard it as an important sign of the time: imperialsm, the colonialists helping the natives with modern gagets since the natives are infantile, and Tintin being the hero as a wild game hunter. It was THE sport at the time to be a super hero. Look at all the old Hollywood movies about Africa, it's pretty much the same. Look at friggin Hemingway. Times have changed. Although many people still think Africans needs to be helped, at least our view of game hunters is different. Sure, there are still those idiots who do not evolve and to this day think killing an animal is masculine, but since 60% of wild animals have dissappeared in the last hundred years, killing endangered species is simply an act of stupidity these days.

It's actually a big coincidence that, when Herge was mentioned, I looked at one of my book shelves and, low and behold, there they are...all the Tintin books (including the ones mentioned: Tintin in the Congo and Tintin in the Land of the Soviets XD)

@frankenstein9691

5 жыл бұрын

Gosh! You have Tintin in the Land of the Soviets on your bookshelf, Bilious Blue Blistering Barnacles!!!!...there it is on a KZread Thumbnail!!!! Wow.

@frankenstein9691

5 жыл бұрын

Otherwise... Cool. All the Tintin books. Like myself.

Someone lamented about reading The Metamorphosis by Kafka? That was the first decent book they served in that joint!

Invasion of the Space Invaders sounds hilarious.

The Spy Who Loved Me sounds like it could be adapted to a really interesting film, if you could get the rights (which nobody ever will who wants to portray Bond that way). Judging by that exerpt, it sounds like it failed to really show the horrors of spy life as intended, but that could be fixed in adaptation.

Samuel Clemens was the original Monty Python's Flying Circus writer.

Philip Pullman- Haunted Storm Unfortunately for him, the book from his early career that he really likes, Galatea, is actually harder to find than the Haunted Storm.

Interesting! Especially Kafka. 90%?!

Vivian in The spy who lived me was french Canadian 😃 The only Québécois in the Bond universe. But there were 2 other Canadians, a general and a chess player.

Louis L'Amour wrote four Hopalong Cassidy novels, but vehemently denied writing them, even refusing to autograph them if presented to him.

Re. Stephen King; I loved Carrie and I loved The Shining. But Salem's Lot scared me so much I couldn't even finish it! Haven't finished even to this day!

I once had a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook.

I wish I could say"As one would" as cool as him

The book "rage" wouldn't have been that controversial before the 90's. school shootings were rare even in the US at that time.

1:47 "would not go down well today!" I guess you never heard of 50 shades then?

I’ve actually read Mark Twain’s “1601” it is hilarious

sad to see people disown their works.

Love tintin and asterix but there depiction of africans were racist even in the 70s.

@shebbs1

5 жыл бұрын

Yeah, but they were funny, especially Asterix before the death of Uderzo.

@namebrandmason

5 жыл бұрын

That's true, but Tintin in the Congo was published in the 1930s.

@muskatDR

5 жыл бұрын

"Lets talk about your homeland, Congo!"

@MaJuV

5 жыл бұрын

Most (if not all) European strips from before the 90s (and maybe even after that) had that casual racism when depicting people of color. Though that's mostly due to most comic book writers and artists never seeing a black person in their entire life. People of color in Europe has only really become a thing in the past few decades. So if all you have to base yourself on is the words and pictures of priests and other people that worked in "the colonies", there's no real surprise it ended up being racist.

@MyRegardsToTheDodo

5 жыл бұрын

@@MaJuV "People of color in Europe has only really become a thing in the past few decades." Uh, wrong. Archaelogical digs have proven that "people of color" as you call them (isn't that term racist in itself, we all have a color?) have lived in Great Britain at least as early as the 1400s, and records show that they were seen as somewhat uncommon, but had to face by far less racism than they would have today. France had a relatively stable population (almost no growth in population after 1740), so when they needed work force at the beginning of the industrial revolution a lot of immigrants came into the country and people in some colonies were even made French citizens (the Carribean for example). But there are a lot of racist thones in Tintin, for example in The Blue Lotus, which is partially as bad as US anti-japanese war propaganda.

10:41 You should read "yt" as "that", because here the y represents "thorn", a letter that gives the sound of "th" but is no longer available in the alphabet, so people substituted Y for it. "Ye" would be read as "the" and that's why you'll see shops which adopt an old-fashioned look naming themselves things like "Ye Olde Sweete Shoppe". "Whereat" is pronounced where-at (meaning whereupon).

I like my beans with ketchup George.

As soon as Mark Twain was mentioned, I immedietly knew I wouldn't be able to understand anything quoted

I'm gonna find me a copy of Rage. I've been meaning to read it for years but I've got so many books from 3 different writers to catch up on it's not even funny.

I studied Kafka in German class He lived in what was Austro-Hungary.

I'm fairly certain people have also heard of Cehov.