Stephenie Meyer with the twilight series, and Christopher Paolini with his terrible generic fantasy.
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Stephenie Meyer with the twilight series, and Christopher Paolini with his terrible generic fantasy.
Me also, She just doesn't compare to other authors from the past. But she is probably easier to access than a lot of authors.Quote:
Originally Posted by subterranean
I would nominate J.D. Salinger. The only reason he is well known is because he is a social recluse and won't do any interviews, thus increasing the hype of his novels. Also Stephenie Meyer by far.
Certainly Salinger! A lot of people would say he's a great author, but could only mention The Catcher In The Rye.
Well, regardless of the merits and demerits of Catcher, it only takes one to put you on the literary map so to speak.Quote:
Originally Posted by Twhalley
Most overrated: Hemingway, Kerouac and To Kill A Mocking Bird
Most underrated: Anthony Burgess
it's such a shame Catcher gets all the attention when Franny and Zooey is much better.Quote:
Originally Posted by Twhalley
I cringe a little every time I see Hemingway or Kerouac in this thread.
True, Kerouac isn't the greatest writer in the world, and not all of his works are great, but when he is on he is one of the most enjoyable authors I have ever read. Stay away from On the Road and try Dharma Bums, or Big Sur.
Then again, it's all opinion.
Stephenie Meyer is the most overrated "writer" ever. To have insights on why, visit twilightsucks.com.
I concur. Stephenie Meyer's novels couldn't be less original, and further overrated, if she tried.
Who is Stephenie Meyer? I have never heard of her, and I have never heard of her writing being rated highly by anyone.
Well, vampires that glitter in sunlight are original enough, though not entirely well-received. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by Lullaby
She wrote a series called the Twilight Saga: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. They are 'highly rated' by hormonal teenagers/housewives.Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterL
Hm, I agree that she's not the best writer in the world, but at least its entertaining. I mean, how could a vampire/werewolf/human love triangle not be amusing?:lol:
I never heaard of her, so her rating can't be significant.Quote:
Originally Posted by kelby_lake
I agree.
If you've never heard of her, then you havn't been inside of a North American bookstore or movie theater in a year (or you're deaf). Every time I go to the counter at a Chapters, the person that checks me out almost always says something along the lines of "Oh thank god, someone who ISN'T buying something by Stephenie Meyer." Also, the "Twilight" posters are everywhere, and people on THIS forum have been harping about it for months. Where have you been?Quote:
Originally Posted by PeterL
LOL, f'real. Her mention is as common as a cold virus.Quote:
Originally Posted by JuniperWoolf
I think it's invalid to call her "overrated" though. No one credible would ever call her a Great Writer; even her fans (except those under 15 years, who probably constitute a majority) would acknowledge that she is more of an entertainer than an artist. On the whole, she is rated correctly; that is, she is a delightful indulgence for a limited audience, and nothing more.
It is fair to call authors like Kerouac or Salinger overrated, as they are taught in schools as examples of Great Writers. Or even someone contemporary like Palahniuk--I wouldn't be surprised if there is a Palahniuk class taught at some university somewhere, because people really take that douche seriously. One of my friends told me that "Fight Club" changed her life. What a tool. I guess she's not really my friend. Well, she was before she said that.
So you're talking behind your friend's back because she doesn't like the same literature as you . . . :thumbs_upQuote:
Originally Posted by triplesick
I posted earlier in this thread that Shakespeare was the most over-rated writer...I'm changing my vote to Ayn Rand. As much as Shakespeare's praise annoys me, hardcore Rand fans("Objectivists") are almost as crazy as hardcore Twilight fans that beat people that dislike Twilight with baseball bats.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sanjar of Akkad
how can one not love a forum that has a thread that gives these three writers equal consideration...Quote:
Originally Posted by My name is red
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Shakespeare was the most over-rated writer
Why do you think he's overrated?
Because anyone placed universally on such a high pedestal is inherently over-rated.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Because anyone placed universally on such a high pedestal is inherently over-rated.
Don't you think it might be because of how good the work is?
"Good" is 100% subjective.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Desolation, thanks for the chuckle. A good friend went through an Objectivist phase and, man, he was hardcore. I can dig the philosophy of rational self interest in theory and am still compelled by the logical base of Objectivism. But Atlas Shrugged is just a sheer plot draped over speeches proseletysing Objectivism. Rand is no novelist.Quote:
Originally Posted by Desolation
I posted atlas shrugged as a novel that changed my life in another thread, but I have to agree that her writing is pretty bad. More like ayn rant...am i right?
The worst part was at the end of that book where all the good guys are suddenly a highly trained SWAT team.
Yeah.. I laugh now but when I was a young dips*** Atlas Shrugged did help get me off my butt and working hard.Quote:
Originally Posted by Manchegan
Same.Quote:
Originally Posted by March Hare
As for overrated, I'd have to go with Vonnegut or Hemingway.
As for overrated, I'd have to go with Vonnegut
I read The Sirens of Titan in a completely different way to my English teacher some 3 million years ago. He read it the more sophisticated ironic way - which I might be mature enough to get now. I think he's a sophisticated writier.
hardly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Paulclem
Ayn Rand maybe. How the hell is it that Atlas Shrugged is number one on the Modern Library's best novels of the century auidence poll, a privlige shared alongside Ulysses in the critics poll. Total absurdity.
Wilfred Owen is a bit overrated as well. And so is Charles Burkoski, but that's just my opinion. His works always appeared a bit superficial to me.
By Burkoski do you mean Charles Bukowski? Either way, everybody knows that JBI is the most overrated writer anyway - no point looking for a competitor.
For me it's got to be D.H. Lawrence. He was pompous, judgemental, full of self-pitying egotism and his stories describe a black and white world where he is right and everybody who opposes the narrator's pov is wrong. I rated him as an adolescent but it was when I had to study Sons and Lovers for A level that I really went off him big time.
Yes!Quote:
Originally Posted by neilgee
The man was an abysmal writer... god alone knows why he stays so popular. I can only assume it has something to with noteriety...
Joyce.
I think James Joyce is vastly overrated; so is Hemingway the novelist although he wrote some fine short stories.
Friedrich Schiller... don't know if you know him but my country is awfully proud of him and I can't see why ... there might be some nice ideas in his plays but ... really they agonize me with him every german lesson... that wannabe-shakespear (I realy like shakespear and reading Schiller I realy must say that he can't hold a candle to the beaty of his stile...)
Joyce is overrated, but that's cos critics are always waiting for a writer who's hard to understand, so that they can spend the next 987694375 years writing about them. Pathetic. Having said that, I've only read Dubliners and A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. Ulysses may yet surprise me, but I'm not counting on it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jermac
I loved The Sun Also Rises so I wouldn't say Hemingway is overrated. The Old Man and the Sea definitely is, though.
Dan Brown is overrated. But then again, he's not a writer.
Oh come on. Since when was ambiguity such a bad thing? Mystery is what keeps things beautiful. If Joyce had not written in such a radically different way, literature would not be what it is today. New percpectives always create new horizens for creativity. I suppose Shakespeare and Dante too are overrated since they've been written about for well over three hundred years.Quote:
Originally Posted by escapologist
Okay, I know I'm the bad guy, but Dickens hasn't really appealed to me in recent years. When I was younger I loved Oliver Twist and Great Expectations, but now, despite the forever known fact that Dickens is probably second or third to Shakespeare in charactarization, he just writes on and on to a rather dull extent, and his class commentary isn't as powerful as Dostoyevsky's.
I'm not saying he's a bad writer, I'm saying he's made to sound more complicated than he really is. I don't see the point in analysing every little word in Ulysses. It ruins the beauty of the book. The point of literary criticism isn't to dissect works of art.Quote:
Originally Posted by DanielBenoit