Which author have you read that seems the most intelligent? Not necessarily the best books, just someone who you admire for their intellect.
The closer they are to modern times the better.
Can you give us some examples?
>>7666603
Bertrand Russell.
But I know he's fairly basic. I know there are probably quite a few people out there that I don't know of or can't read because they speak in some weird quasi-english impenetrable academia language
>>7666589
Check out Dorothy Sayers.
Roxanne Gay
Goethe, Borges
Only name that comes to me for me as contemporary as it may be - Foster Wallace
>>7666589
Hume and Gibbon
Marquez
Borges
Nabakov
Sylvia Plath
Goethe
Byron
Churchill
Tolstoy
>>7666776
I used to think Borges too, but hearing Bloom say his writing is limited to the same 4 or 5 themes really made that fact stand out.
C.S. Lewis
Arthur Conan Doyle
Wallace and Hitchens
I don't always agree 100% with him, but his intellect is truly awesome.
ITT we don't understand the difference between knowledge and intelligence
>>7666589
>>7666589
Bob Jessop
>>7666589
Gass and Gaddis never cease to surprise me with how intelligent they are.
>>7666809
does that makes him "less" intelligent?
>>7667184
Fuck off meme faggot
>>7666589
I admire Ezra Pound even if more than half his lyrics suck. The man was brilliant.
Thomas Browne
John Milton though I'm not a big fan of his longer works. A genius though imo a dry poet
Whitman was a genius, though just fucking lazy after about 1866
Dante
Kant though I'm not a big fan of philosophy
certainly Hegel as well
Heidegger too
Chaucer for sure
Herman Melville strikes me as a very intelligent man who would blush and knock you out in a bar if you said "hey I saw u at the library (:"
>>7666589
Oswald spengler, Julius Evola, and David Duke.
George Orwell.
>>7667386
You first, retard. It must suck to be too stupid to enjoy two of the greatest writers ever.
>>7666589
Carlyle seems really, really smart
I can't see writers of fiction as intelligent. Creative, well read, interesting but true intelligence is reserved for sciences and maths for me.
>>7666589
>Which author have you read that seems the most intelligent?
Jules Verne
>>7668130
That's because you're an autismal subhuman.
>>7668130
I mean, most people write both anyways
>>7666803
>DFW
yeah, his interviews and talks are always a great listen
>>7668564
yeah if u think banal and mediocre "observations" are interesting, stay pleb, dweeb
>>7666589
Orwell and Asimov are two that come to mind right away.
The Thomas Trinity:
Aquinas, Mann, Pynchon
>>7666809
It really isn't, though. Try his poetry or essays. Much more diverse than the short stories
>>7668130
It takes more than just creativity to engineer a piece of literature. And if gifted scientists/mathematicians don't inherently have more potential to create literature, then what is that creative power other than some kind of other intelligence? Maybe a lesser kind, but it's distinct and not necessarily possessed by those with the "true" kind.
umberto eco
thomas mann
>>7668626
No Bernhard? Plen.
Nietzsche just radiates overwhelming intelligence off every page.
>>7666809
So he's not intelligent just because he's obsessed with time and repetition? I don't think you know what intelligent means.
>>7668130
>true intelligence
Y'know, it's kind of ironic that you hold intelligence in such high regard, because, actually, you're kind of a retard.
>>7669031
What do you do if you're in this situation? Reading more just makes me pretentious, not smart.
>>7667386
>>7666809
I want to agree with this until I remember that every writer does this
>>7668130
>true intelligence
>>7666589
Joseph McElroy and Gene Wolfe strike me as particularly sharp living writers. They were both engineers who picked up writing later in life, which makes me think they have a lot going on in their heads. They both were respected STEM-autists but also managed to become very respected writers. Most people would be very pleased with accomplishing one of those things and then just stop trying new things.
>>7669028
he's stupid because he's limited, boring and a shit writer.
>>7669080
He's limited maybe, but the other 2 are just your plebness showing.
>>7666589
Really smart people don't waste their time with fiction. It's purely the domain of self-deluded jokers.
>>7669080
>boring
What's your idea of an "exciting" author, then? If not Borges?
>>7666757
I see her name come up on Twitter all the time. What has she written that you liked?
>>7666589
In philosophy (and, thus, over all), Kant.
In fiction, probably Proust? Who knows?
>>7666589
gibbon
Ian Tregillis seems to have a really amazing knowledge of christianity and physics, and uses the combination to beautifully describe the kind of sensations ineffable entities might experience. The fact that he does that in a noir novel is absolutely fantastic.
Also, this isn't really /lit/ per say, but I have a set of cookbooks by Nathan Myhrvold and the guy is a fucking genius with regards to bio/organic chemistry and the culinary arts. Pretty much every successful molecular gastronomer is
>>7668391
^this
