This board needs to read more Samuel Johnson.
This board needs to read more Samuel Johnson
James Lee
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Jayden Wilson
Agreed.
Henry Young
superior
Thomas Jackson
Boswell got venereal disease and struggled with it the rest of his life. He should have done what Johnson did after his wife died, and become a volcel that merely flirted and enjoyed ladies' company.
Mason Ward
Yup. I would not place them in the first rank of authors, But I would place him Among the first rank of moralists, Critics, biographers, lexicographers, authors of periodical essays, and space riders.
As a prose stylist And as a first draft writer, However, I would place him in A rank Above all other authors. I know of no other human works, except maybe in the most finished compositions of Bach, Beethoven, and Mozart, That show such flawlessness, where every single part Is perfectly crafted, yet has such a clear function in the larger purpose.
Before I read Johnson, I could never have conceived that Such perfect, if rarely truly Original in philosophic sense, Could exist. Had I seen a single sentence of his, I would consider it truly resplendent, but of a quality I could never be maintained for an entire composition had I seen a single sentence of his, I would consider it truly resplendent, but of a quality that could never be maintained for an entire composition, yet this is precisely what we see in Johnson, maintained not only in compositions, but throughout almost his works.
Johnson neither had the original profundity of a philosopher, nor the keen aesthetic sense of a greatpoet or novelist. If those things are Allowed as his faults, and perhaps keep him from Being considered one of the greatest authors, He executed his strengths to a greater degree than I know of In any author.
I think he has more claim To greatness in the English language than Cicero had in the Latin, as his use of language is no perfect, And his thoughts are actually more original than that of Cicero’s. I would allow that Johnson has more authors to compete with then Cicero had. If I ever set out as an author, However, I would devote Myself To Johnson and the imitation of him as much as I could manage As slavishly as Ciceronians attempted to imitate their darling Orator.
Zachary Hill
nice try, OP
this is pathetic.
Jose Cook
I am SO angry that I live in the 21st century, from the perspective of public vocabulary. Our vocabularies today are the most shamefully impoverished show of languages that has ever been seen in the Western world for centuries now. Reading any newspaper, article, essay, novel, poem or other piece of literature from any previous century makes me feel so completely embarrassed and ashamed of myself, and how tiny my personal lexicon is compared to what the public of previous eras were effortlessly acquainted with. We are a joke compared to them. Even the 50s and 60s, if you watch interviews and game shows from that time, display such a greater sophistication of speech than their equivalent programs today do, or even people in much higher professions show themselves capable of. The English tongue has truly degenerated over the past several centuries.
Kevin Wood
So, I am OP? I am going to entertain this notion, but I am curious as to what my motive could be. Am I Trying to fluff up my darling author By pretending another is so enthusiastic about him that he would write Such a response?
Jaxon Evans
What to read by him, please? :D
William Peterson
He's not OP, I am, and I say: read the Rambler essays. Read all of them. They're wonderful, and they often contain genuine practical advice. Johnson is actually thought to have suffered from depression, and a lot of what he writes in the morality essays has to do with staving off what was then thought of us "melancholy" and persevering in the face of distress in life.
Actually, Yale has a digital archive of all of Johnson's works, which you can find here, for free:
Brayden Kelly
In my opinion, that is not accurate. As much as I put authors like Hume, Richardson, Smith, Lennox, and Blair On a pedestal, with Johnson towering over all of them in my mind, the vocabulary size of a general person, And even specialized disciplines have increased.
If one finds far more tasteful verbosity In the works of a handful of authors, or haps even authors generally of this., The reason is that in this age, a wider variety of people is the target of literature.
In the 18th century, somebody, I am not sure who, perhaps it was Swift, said that the general knowledge reading in his time actually degraded writing From the time of the ancients, At that time, we’re still seen as the pinnacle of literature. I will not say whether I agree with him, but I think the general appeal of literature has resulted at This time To a low point of it, Especially considering now, when the reading population has actually decreased, but the standards have not, So we find the motivation to write, pecuniary And social, to be smaller, attracting fewer people of talent, while the audience to be pleased, while perhaps comparable to a previous time when standards were higher, have not grown more discerning.
If you are interested in the effective use Of a wide vocabulary, I would suggest you read, Starting at any point, The theory of leisure class by Veblen. I am diametrically opposed to many of the authors positions, and while some of the conclusions are persuasive, They are rather simplistic and overstated. He treats of subjects that do not appeal to me, and, again, arrives at conclusions I dot agree with. Still, there is a great deal of profundity in his conclusions, and I know of no author, save Johnson, That more precisely used such a wide variety of words. Indeed, as much as I admire Johnson, he might be a superior in this regard. However, Johnson’s treatment of subjects is far more inclined to my taste, and Johnson’s cadence alone makes him the better prose stylelist.
Jacob Perry
This. The Rambler is his masterpiece, and like Brahms in regards to Mozart’s marriage of Figaro, "In my opinion, each [essay] in [the Rambler] is a miracle; it is totally beyond me how anyone could create anything so perfect; nothing like it was ever done again.”
After this, I would recommend the Adventurer, then the Idler. These are all in the style of the periodical essay, So perhaps if the form begins to dial you, I would suggest Rasselas, the Lives of the Poets. I would principally value the parliamentary speeches, which I really think are the finest set of speeches in the English language.
Xavier Gonzalez
Rasselas is awesome and short, his essays and examples of early English from the introdictiom to the Dictionary are unbelievably good, and the essay writing in the Rambler is the most economical use of English I know of.
He really does set the bar in terms of never wasting words.
Err...
His words wasted fewer than any other.
Christian Torres
As much as I admire Johnson, I would not say this is strictly. He does resort too often to adding needless epithets or descriptions, conjoined with a conjunction.
However, in terms of brilliance in every single sentence, or a quality that is proportionate and evenly distributed, Johnson certainly is at the first rank among authors.
Gabriel Bailey
Yeah for sure, he builds in clauses, as is the English habit. I was thinking of conciseness in terms of his word choice and the balancing of his sentences. He can cover enormous amounts of ground in two or three sentences.
Levi Davis
A rather obsequious, and in the context in which it appears, quite superfluous flattery, though it does give some indication of the merits of the Rambler.
>you are qualified for a critic at the Bedford Coffee-house; where, with the rest of your brothers, demi-wits, you may sit in judgment upon the productions of a Young, a Richardson, or a Johnson; rail with premeditated malice at the Rambler; and, for the want of faults, turn even its inimitable beauties into ridicule. The language, because it reaches to perfection, may be called stiff, laboured, and pedantic; the criticisms, when they let in more light than your weak judgment can bear, superficial and ostentatious glitter; and because those papers contain the finest system of ethics yet extant, damn the queer fellow, for over-propping virtue; an excellent new phrase! which those who can find no meaning in, may accommodate with one of their own.
His paragraphs are at times, mini-essays of their own, and perhaps his greatest fault is his Superfluity, But there is still an extraordinary amount of unity in his essays, especially considering what profound excellence of various sorts I are in each essay.
Thomas Long
I've only read parts of his dictionary, but the writing was beautiful. I need more!
Aaron Hughes
For me, its the Preface to Shakespeare
Matthew Parker
Read Life of Johnson, his essays, and Rasselas
Adam Nguyen
>As much as I put authors like Hume, Richardson, Smith, Lennox, and Blair On a pedestal
don´t namedropped surnames, i want the full name of each of these authors goddamnit, i searched for lennox and shows an american rapper
David Anderson
Much as I value SJ what Yea Forums needs to read is more STC.
Daniel Moore
Sorry.
David Hume
Samuel Richardson
Adam Smith
Charlotte Lennox
Hugh Blair
Really, it can't be overstated how Johnson is superior stylistically over all these authors.
Cameron Rodriguez
apologies acepted user
Juan Peterson
As far as beautiful prose goes, Edward Gibbon almost has Johnson beat. Check out the "Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" some time, it's a masterpiece.
Really, that whole era, the English Enlightenment, was a golden age for style.
Jordan Murphy
With respect to the generation preceding, Johnson's own assessment rests here. In 17th c England no one stylistically tops Joseph Addison. Love Gibbon, however. Have even read his Autobiography.
Ian Murphy
*forgot pic