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Novels for the "Airplane Test" | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Lessons in Polyglottery |  | |
| Oliver B. Diglot Newbie Germany Joined 5993 days ago 1 posts - 1 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: FrenchB2, Spanish | Message 1 of 7 28 June 2008 at 5:28am | IP Logged | ||
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Dear Prof. Arguelles,
you wrote, a bit more than three years ago, the following lines:
I think that this "Airplane Test" is a fascinating idea. Unfortunately the list of novels quoted above is quite short. That is why I would like to ask you to add some novels to this list. I am especially interested in Spanish and French novels, although I feel that I am only able to read novels of this kind in German and English at the moment. I am sure that many people would profit greatly from an enlarged list of recommended books for the Airplane Test. Thank you very much in advance. Oliver B. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Captain Haddock Diglot Senior Member Japan kanjicabinet.tumblr. Joined 6768 days ago 2282 posts - 2814 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese Studies: French, Korean, Ancient Greek | Message 2 of 7 28 June 2008 at 5:59am | IP Logged | ||
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Forgive me for answering in the Professor's absence.
In addition to Foucault's Pendulum, add The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. The originals are in Italian, but international editions are translated by the very best of translators. For English, I'd be impressed by any non-native speaker who could read Dan Simmons (Hyperion) or Alastair Reynolds (Century Rain) without difficulty. Any of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe novellas are tremendously enjoyable reads, containing both top-notch language and great wit. For Spanish, there is The Club Dumas and the Captain Alatriste novels by Arturo Pérez-Reverte. (My literary knowledge is dominated by SF and mystery. I suspect the Professor doesn't read too much from those genres.) Paul D. Edited by Captain Haddock on 28 June 2008 at 6:07am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ruan Diglot Groupie BrazilRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6181 days ago 95 posts - 101 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, English | Message 3 of 7 02 July 2008 at 10:43am | IP Logged | ||
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"Gabriela, Cravo e Canela" is considered an easy novel and is often read by high school students. "Grande Sertão : Veredas" by João Guimarães Rosa is the masterpiece of Brazilian literature and undoubtly one of the hardest novels ever written in this language. It is frequently called "the Brazilian Ulysses".
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| Felipe Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 6030 days ago 451 posts - 501 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Italian, Dutch, Catalan | Message 4 of 7 02 July 2008 at 11:39am | IP Logged | ||
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[QUOTE=Oliver B.] Dear Prof. Arguelles,
you wrote, a bit more than three years ago, the following lines: [quote]A meaningful standard of fluency for me is the ability to read an artistic work of literature such as a novel by a difficult author like William Faulkner or James Joyce. How many native English speakers can do this? ...QUOTE] I've tried to read "Finnigan's Wake" by James Joyce and I doubt if many native English speakers can make sense out of it. I sure couldn't. I have read "El Club Dumas" and the "Capitán Alatriste" series and many other books by Arturo Pérez-Reverte and didn't have any trouble with them. "Cien años de soledad" wasn't too difficult either. Does this mean I fail the airplane test in my native language, but pass it in Spanish? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| TheElvenLord Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6080 days ago 915 posts - 927 votes 1 sounds Speaks: Cornish, English* Studies: Spanish, French, German Studies: Portuguese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 7 02 July 2008 at 11:58am | IP Logged | ||
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For Cornish
Broder Wella (Brother Wella: story about a priest, about 700 pages) An gurun wosek a geltya (The bloody crown of the celts: no idea how many pages) TEL 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ProfArguelles Moderator United States foreignlanguageexper Joined 7256 days ago 609 posts - 2102 votes | Message 6 of 7 03 July 2008 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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I have a relatively ready answer for this one: please visit the Great Books page on my website and look at the lists at the bottom of the page.
The lists for the non-Western civilizations are pathetically sketchy and incomplete even though they are expanded versions of all previous lists that have been made in this direction. Much work remains to be done here, but I have gotten disappointingly little feedback on this thus far. Alexander Arguelles 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| minus273 Triglot Senior Member France Joined 5765 days ago 288 posts - 346 votes Speaks: Mandarin*, EnglishC2, French Studies: Ancient Greek, Tibetan | Message 7 of 7 15 February 2009 at 7:56am | IP Logged | ||
I would suggest Kokon Wakashuu and Edo popular novels, besides, one or several commentaries on Genji Monogatari (Motoori Nobunaga at least). Native commentaries are also important for Chinese classics as the trends and conversations and arguments in Chinese intellectual history are almost all in form of commentary of Confucian/Taoist classics. The Chinese-language collection looks quite superficial, have you read http://www.cul-studies.com/Article/sixiang/200501/581.html or http://www.guoxue.com/gxrm/mjtjsm.htm, for example? One or two gems in 魏晋玄学, and a whole lot of books on Neo-confucianism and its intellectual descendants (there are only 传习录 and one 朱熹), and an prose analogy from the 春秋 masters to Qing prose (in the gist of 古文观止) would be good also. I would like also to see a Chinese book on poetics. Edited by minus273 on 15 February 2009 at 8:06am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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