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Oh, thank God! It is not only me after all! Huh, they like them just because these books are scandalous. I don’t think this is a good reason enough to read and like something. Are they all mad? Even if we stop thinking about the flat plots, based only on the unexpected turns, where is the esthetic pleasure of the beautiful prose? I didn’t find it anywhere; am I supposed to look for it with a magnifying glass?!
William Shakespeare. James Joyce. Gabriel Garcia Marquez.
Margaret Atwood = totally overated.
perhaps you could say some novels like 'Alias Grace' or 'Oryx and Crake' are overrated (not i myself because i love Atwood's writing style) but i cannot understand how anyone could read 'The Handmaid's Tale' is overrated. As dystopian literature it is up there with Orwell's '1984'.Quote:
Originally Posted by Maria L
I like the covers of Tom Robbins' books a great deal more than I like the actual literature.
P.S. Margaret Atwood = awesome.
How could you say that people such as Shakespeare and Joyce are overated!? Shakespeare did not become the greatest producer of literature in the English language and in all probability the world by being overated. And neither did Joyce produce such novels hailed as classics of 20th century litearture by being overated. I agree, however, entirely with blackbird 9. Dan Brown is greatly overated. The only reasons his books sell are because they ar controversial. Before the Da Vinci Code h was unknown, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point having sold less than 10,000 copies between them. Now they sell because you could say they too are controversial and have recieved exposure.
Jane Austen is not overated; she is a brilliant novelist, it's just she wrote in the old ways, meaning that today her merit is not as greatly revered. I would like to contribute Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway.
*jaw drops*Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan Madley
But Twain is hillarious, and Hemingway is...not.
I'm not sure it's possible for "overrated" authors to change the way books are written. Hemingway's style has been tremendously influencial - and his stories have the sly ability to appear very simple (when in reality they are not at all so): but that's part of the artistry.Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan Madley
As far as Mark Twain - huh? He too was involved in changing the face of American Literature - how can you be overrated if you're capable of doing that?
As far as Margaret Atwood goes, her poetry, short stories and novels (Handmaid and Oryx were excellent) reveal a considerable writer of vision.
I admit, Handmaid's Tale is a moving novel
but otherwise I don't appreciate Atwood too much.
As for more authors who are overrated, I think I have changed my mind.
No author can be overrated. It is just the amount of publicizm their books get.
I.E: Dan Brown went Hollywood and his books became known worldwide.
The only reason authors are considered "overrated" is when some idiot who has never read in his life decides to pick one up and realizes hey - reading's not that bad! Then the book get's publicized and even more idiots read it. Then, these books become famous - even when they're not that great...
It has nothing to do with the author at all!
Haha, I think that's an overestimation of Shakespeare, so I guess that means I think Shakespeare has just become overrated (by Brendan Madley).Quote:
Originally Posted by Brendan Madley
With the help of ten fingers and a keyboard.Quote:
How could you say that people such as Shakespeare and Joyce are overated!?
Subjective claim, nonsensical sentence.Quote:
Shakespeare did not become the greatest producer of literature in the English language and in all probability the world by being overated.
Joyce did write some decent short stories, I am not familiar with all of his novels, but his magnum opus, Ulysses is the definition of unreadable twaddle.Quote:
And neither did Joyce produce such novels hailed as classics of 20th century litearture by being overated.
That's neither here nor there though, so if you re-read the sentence you wrote again, you'll realize that claims like 'classics of 20th century' are precisely the reason people call his works over-rated. Ulysses has definitely become a classic, there's no denying that certainly - doesn't make it a particularly good book though.
I am not aware of many people who rate Dan Brown's stuff to begin with. How can you be over-rated if no body even rates you?Quote:
Dan Brown is greatly overated. The only reasons his books sell are because they ar controversial. Before the Da Vinci Code h was unknown, Angels and Demons, Digital Fortress and Deception Point having sold less than 10,000 copies between them. Now they sell because you could say they too are controversial and have recieved exposure.
That's just semantics. Unless specifically stated otherwise, whenever people are talking about an author being 'over-rated', it is generally taken for the granted that they mean his literary canon, not his character as a person.Quote:
The only reason authors are considered "overrated" is when some idiot who has never read in his life decides to pick one up and realizes hey - reading's not that bad! Then the book get's publicized and even more idiots read it. Then, these books become famous - even when they're not that great...
It has nothing to do with the author at all!
There's a difference between fame and appreciation. Authors like Dan Brown, Tom Clancy, Nora Roberts, Sydney Sheldon and (to a certain extent) J. K. Rowling are famous but hardly anybody 'rates' them. [rightly or wrongly] On the flip side, Shakespeare, Joyce, Tolkien, Twain, Poe and Austen are considered and accepted as literary giants even by those who haven't read them.
rebuttal mood I see.
Well said. Overrated depends on how the novels are being judged. Tom Clancy's novels are judged on their entertainment value, whereas Shakespeare is judged for his literary merit and the effects his works have on society. One might say that while Clancy's novels are entertaining, they may not go down in history as being the most relevant to history and society. While some say that Shakespeare is the most influential writer of the english language, his work may be boring and difficult to understand (I disagree with this last point, but I have heard it said). When one judges an author of being overrated, one must mention on what level the author's work is judged.Quote:
Originally Posted by EAP
Ask anybody qualified on world literature and they will tell you the merits of Shakespeare and Joyce. Something great does not neccessarily have to be readable by everybody. It is the prose and depiction of life that is of the true merit.