Saturday 12 January 2008

TOP 5 WRITERS ACCORDING TO SIMON KING

5
Paul Auster
Auster fuses the metric pace of crime thrillers with metaphysical subjects, making this certain genre of fiction - which usually appeals to smaller, intellectual audiences - easily accessible and more exciting for the standard literary punter.

His characters are seekers who find themselves under new situations which are coincidences: chance events. They adjust to it in a quest to find answers about themselves - an identity.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=544047531449302445&q=paul+auster&total=82&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=0

4
Julio Cortazar


Cortazar, along Poe and Borges, ranks as one of the greatest short story writers. He usually sets his stories in realistic situations, but slowly begins to integrate fantastic elements, surprising and unsettling the reader. The way he strings words together is absolutely wonderful; he manages to hold the reader's attention without any real plot development. Along with writers like Rulfo, Onetti and Borges, he deserves to be credited as one of the creators of 'magic realism'.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3562250863327291954&q=julio+cortazar&total=322&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=1
3
William Faulkner

A writer who is more acclaimed for 'form' rather than 'content'. Faulkner writes from many angles at once; he doesn't write chronologically, he gets under the skin of his characters via a dense use of stream of consciousness. Unlike Joyce (who he hasn't got that much in common with), I find that what he is communicating is far more accessible and meaningful. At heart, he is still a storyteller depicting the lives of very simple people living in the south of U. S. A., and he does it beautifully well.

2
Jorge Luis Borges

The best writer that blurs our perceptions between fantasy and reality - the ultimate metaphysical writer. His short stories can be read and read and re-read while still maintaining the initial 'wow' factor one initially gets. He was not 'erudite' as many say, but had a child-like fascination for literature that never diminished with his old age.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5764775529251127235&q=jorge+luis+borges&total=275&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=3

1
J. G. Ballard


I love the way all his characters crave the dangerous and the bizarre.