11-02-2003 00:44									#31
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Thanks man....now, if I can just get BlackWidow to read it and swoon....

-=Vel=-

	11-02-2003 01:33									#32
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The Ramayana epic.

It didn't change the world, since it wasn't published at a single time, but it's a very important book.

has anyone read it? I wrestled through it, and don't remember a single shread of info.

	11-02-2003 02:14									#33
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quote: Originally posted by DuncanK Isn't the Declaration of Independence a copy of the Magna Carta?

No, The Magna Carta was written well before there was a USA, 1215 IIRC. It is the nearest to a British Constitution that we have, and basically removes some of the absolute powers of the monarch. It was almost a list on consessions from the King (King John?) to the Nobles, who weren't happy with his rule.

	11-02-2003 02:32									#34
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Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Plato's Republic
Meditations on First Philosophy by Descartes
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding by Locke

	11-02-2003 02:34									#35
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Damn, I was just about to say Descartes

	11-02-2003 02:35									#36
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quote: Originally posted by Drogue No, The Magna Carta was written well before there was a USA, 1215 IIRC. It is the nearest to a British Constitution that we have, and basically removes some of the absolute powers of the monarch. It was almost a list on consessions from the King (King John?) to the Nobles, who weren't happy with his rule.

Were you thinking that I said the Magna Carta was a copy of the Dec. of Ind.?

	11-02-2003 02:36									#37
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DP

	11-02-2003 02:54									#38
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quote: Originally posted by DuncanK Were you thinking that I said the Magna Carta was a copy of the Dec. of Ind.?

No. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think they have that much to do with each other. The Magna Carta wasn't declaring independence, it laid down a few guidelines and rules for the King. I think they're pretty different, in almost all respects.

	11-02-2003 02:57									#39
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I'm going to get killed for this:
The story about the Turtle and the Hare.

Referances to that story are EVERYWHERE. For instance on our tractor there are pictures of turtles and hares.

	11-02-2003 03:04									#40
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Grrr, you could just say Aesop's Fables in general, which do seem pretty ubiquitous.

	11-02-2003 03:46									#41
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How about The Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant (plus works metioned earlier)?

	11-02-2003 03:50									#42
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Parmenides' Poem esp. "The Way of Truth"

The inaugural work of Western philosophy (everything before that was just bad science).

"Never shall this prevail
That what-is-not should be
But, thinking, restrain your thought
from that path of inquiry."

The most pregnant words ever uttered....

	11-02-2003 04:56									#43
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quote: Originally posted by Drogue No. I see where you're coming from, but I don't think they have that much to do with each other. The Magna Carta wasn't declaring independence, it laid down a few guidelines and rules for the King. I think they're pretty different, in almost all respects.

I think they are duplicated idea for idea in sequence.

	11-02-2003 05:25									#44
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On second thought I think I could be wrong. It's the Bill of Rights that is based on the Magna Carta. The Declaration of Independence comes from John Lockes idea of social contract.

	11-02-2003 05:46									#45
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I may be a philistine (hey, a Bible reference), but very few of the books mentioned have made my reading list. I couldn't find a good article to support Robert A. Heinlein as an influential author, but a google search for the words "heinlein influential" got 2840 hits. "Stranger in a Strange Land" definitely, IMO, had an effect on 60s counter-culture. Not to mention his huge influence over the field of science fiction. I feel that reading RAH led me to become an atheist, an optimist (particularly in regards to the effects of technology and the basic goodness of mankind), and a pragmatist. I couldn't begin to guess how many young people decided to major in engineering or astronomy due to RAH's writings.

Some works that influenced me directly (as in, I read them and not just authors who were influenced by them):

The Painted Bird, by Jerzy Kozinski
All Quiet on the Western Front, Remarque
An Incomplete Education, Archer and Jones
Huckleberry Finn, Twain
Lord of the Flies, Fielding (a bit of an antidote for too much Heinlein)
1984, Orwell (the antidote for too much optimism in general. Damn book is the cure for happiness.)

I read all these during my formative years, with the exception of An Incomplete Education which I first read in college. IMO the books read in the teen years are the most influential.

A couple of authors I who I think went unmentioned in this thread but who had great influence: Freud, Kipling, and that Marx fellow mentioned in the previous poster's sig.

	11-02-2003 07:57									#46
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Ironikinit--True, 1984 scared the effin **** out of me after I finished it. Thank God we still have a few decades left before we are bowing down to a Big Brother.

The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells
(this book and author launched sci-fi into being you could say, I'm a little rusty on scifi from the time period tho)

	11-02-2003 08:44									#47
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quote: Originally posted by Ironikinit I may be a philistine (hey, a Bible reference), but very few of the books mentioned have made my reading list. I couldn't find a good article to support Robert A. Heinlein as an influential author, but a google search for the words "heinlein influential" got 2840 hits. "Stranger in a Strange Land" definitely, IMO, had an effect on 60s counter-culture. Not to mention his huge influence over the field of science fiction. I feel that reading RAH led me to become an atheist, an optimist (particularly in regards to the effects of technology and the basic goodness of mankind), and a pragmatist. I couldn't begin to guess how many young people decided to major in engineering or astronomy due to RAH's writings.

Man, you said all.

The books and authors already mentioned, of course (well, almost all of them )

Oh, and two more:
Don Quixote de la Mancha, by Miguel de Cervantes, and... Hamlet, by the Bard himself!!!

	11-02-2003 09:39									#48
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The 1612 King James Bible, Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer and the collected works of William Shakespeare all helped to make English a world language. The use of the Bible and the prayer book by missionaries helped to change societies as far apart as Arctic Canada and Western Australia.

In pure literary terms, there are many candidates: Samuel Richardson's 'Pamela' set a vogue for epistolary novels Europe wide; Goethe's 'Sorrows of Young Werther' helped shape the consciousness of his time. In poetry, Wordsworth's 'Prelude and Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 'Lyrical Ballads' kick-started life into Romanticism and reinvigorated nature poetry, both of which in various forms, are still present today.

Moses Maimonides's 'Guide for the Perplexed' influenced Christian, Muslim and Hebrew thought. Euclid's 'Elements' has vexed many a school child whilst still being a fundamental part of Western science and mathematics.
Chairman Mao's 'Red Book' is the only the latest in a line of written works from China influencing how China operates- the 'Tao Te Ching' and the 'Analects' being two others.
Plato's 'Symposium', Clausewitz's 'On War', the Mahabharata, the Rule of St. Benedict- they've all had a part in bringing about the world as we know it.

	11-02-2003 09:52									#49
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"Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson (started environmentalism to a large extent)

	11-02-2003 10:08									#50
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Paradise Lost - John Milton






DanS'ed

Last edited by Timexwatch on 11-02-2003 at 10:18

	11-02-2003 10:12									#51
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Paradise Lost... John Milton, perhaps?

	11-02-2003 10:17									#52
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My bad. I'm confusing my English Literature. I'm going to pull a DanS...

	11-02-2003 10:19									#53
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quote: Originally posted by Timexwatch Paradise Lost - Thomas More

Err, shurely shome mishtake?

Thomas More is better known as the author of 'Utopia'- John Milton is the author of 'Paradise Lost', 'Paradise Regained' 'Samson Agonistes' and 'Lycidas'- and that seminal work in defence of free speech and literature, 'Areopagitica'.

http://www.d-holliday.com/tmore/life2.htm

.

	11-02-2003 15:50									#54
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Brave New World - Huxley

	11-02-2003 15:58									#55
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my autobiography

	12-02-2003 01:22									#56
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'The Oxford Consise English Dictionary'. <- has got to be the book that most people have read excerpts from, but never read in it's entirity .

	12-02-2003 02:54									#57
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Slaughterhouse 5 - Vonnegut

Fahrenheit 451 - Bradbury

1984 - Orwell


Apparently. I'm only influenced by books with numbers in the titles.

	12-02-2003 04:58									#58
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BTW, I know of the most important series of books to modern American teenagers and young adults.

Cliffs Notes.

	12-02-2003 05:37									#59
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The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money - John Maynard Keynes

	12-02-2003 05:42									#60
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The Federalist Papers - Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay.

Common Sense - Thomas Paine