Serious question. I’m vaguely familiar with him as a political commentator on the left, but the more I see of the guy, the more I think he’s just a liberal.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]@hexbear.net
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        1 year ago

        I think in terms of need that’s broadly correct (I might add Goethe and Hugo, and of course the Russian greats but certainly that’s it for English). If you’re reading Shakespeare there’s no reason not to be reading Shikibu or Achebe or a thousand other authors modern and ancient. And Dickens and Austen are way down the priority list.

    • neo [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      A professor I had once did that with Oliver Wendell Holmes, but he was being cheeky about it and his implied purpose for doing so was to challenge us as he made an obvious appeal to authority.