As someone else said, Scheme is the one that warrants the "pure, elegant" reputation. CL is full of crazy features and weird functions but it's because it's bas

As someone else said, Scheme is the one that warrants the "pure, elegant" reputation. CL is full of crazy features and weird functions but it's because it's basically the continued lineage of the original Lisp from 1960. It can even run those old 60s vintage programs with minimal tweaks. https://web.archive.org/web/20150217111426/http://www.informatimago.com/develop/lisp/com/informatimago/small-cl-pgms/wang.html https://web.archive.org/web/20150217111426/http://www.inform... If you just want to play with macros and learn what makes the Lisp thing so special I'd recommend Clojure, it's like a stripped down CL with only functional features, and it's extremely nice and ergonomic.