who is the most overrated writer ever?

De Sade(no matter how bad you may think he is,he's even worse!His poor excuse for philosophy in his works is ridiculous.)

Agreed 100% His "writing" is nothing more than the ramblings of a deranged mind... and even that makes him sound better than he is. As mind-numbingly repetitive as some angst-laden teenager's diary (without the angst) and as "deep" as the ramblings of some middle aged pervert posting comments on some porno blog.

Ernest Hemingway
Actually... I find the short stories quite good.
Virginia Woolf
Really? I quite like her.
Ayn Rand
Agreed again.
Boris Pasternak
Perhaps it is hard to understand why he won the Noble Prize solely on the basis of Doctor Zhivago... but his poetry is quite marvelous. Check out My Sister-Life if you can find it.

I nearly forgot--Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Sure, he has the occasional good comment, but for the most part, this man has everybody fooled. I detest his style; there is no logical flow to his ideas. He quickly jumps from idea to idea without transition. His writing is a series of quotes that makes for a frustrating experience.

Second, he says many things that are just stupid. Occasionally he'll lay some doosie on you like “No great man ever complains of want of opportunity” (tell that to MLK) or “There is a tendency for things to right themselves” (I guess there's no need to treat AIDS patients or pay our bills). Yet everyone treats this guy with extreme reverence even though much of his advice is chock-full of ignorance.

But my biggest gripe with Emerson is his belief that he and the rest of the artistic elite are "part and participle of God." Talk about arrogant. This guy thinks he's filled with divinity. I remember quotes where he boasts that he has seen the universe, that he understands the universe, that he is the universe--all because his body is formed from molecules that have drifted the cosmos. To me, Ralph Waldo Emerson is synonymous with hubris.

Ernest Hemingway
Actually... I find the short stories quite good.
Virginia Woolf
Really? I quite like her.

Okay,I have to admit,I don't think Hemingway,as a writer,is as overrated as some of his works(does that even make sense:brickwall ?) are.Most notably,The Old Man and the Sea.There's just something about that book that makes me want to slap the nearest person.

As for Virginia Woolf,I've read very little of her,granted,but I find her no better than Rand.

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Originally Posted by PabloQ

1. Ignore current bestseller writers. We have no indication we'll be talking about them a hundred years from now.

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I'd agree for the most part, however the probably only exception would be someone who's been sniped at quite a bit in the couple of pages of this discussion I bothered to read: Ms. J.K.Rowling - I think it pretty safe to make a bet that whatever anyone thinks of her writing she's created a phenomenom which is going to be talked about for many many years to come - the franchise is now the most profitable ever: the first five movies taking more in box office gross than 22 james bond films put together (and yes all six star wars films too). The last book sold record numbers in record time.

Of course this doesn't make her a good writer, the books arn't the best written in the world and the plots arn't even that original. However, you have to remember these are childrens books, they just happen to have attracted massive adult audiences as well. I'll concede though that even relative to other children's books of a similar style she's not the best, give me Tolkien's The Hobbit anyday.

P.S. In agreement with other comments - I can't believe anyone can seriously say Shakespeare is over rated and be able to back that up with anything other than "plays are boring" or "the language just doesnt mean anything". I've spent all day going over Romeo and Juliet for revision for a Shakespeare exam I'm sitting on Tuesday and if anything it's only deepened my love for the Bard and all his works... well.... most of his works ;-)

Where's the objectivity? These are the over-rated writers - at present, anyway.:flare:

I'm not sure who is the most overrated author. What I do know is that I recently received an 'Alice in Wonderland' DVD in the post. It was based on a novel by:

J. K. Rowling

at least, in Cyprus, it was, somewhere - apparently!!!:bawling:

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Originally Posted by PeterL

I sometimes ask the same question, but what does that have to do with authors?

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What does it have to do?

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Originally Posted by Mark Anthony

I'm not sure who is the most overrated author. What I do know is that I recently received an 'Alice in Wonderland' DVD in the post. It was based on a novel by:

J. K. Rowling

at least, in Cyprus, it was, somewhere - apparently!!!:bawling:

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That's sick. :lol:

Dan Brown gets my vote for most overrated author currently. He combines all the current conspiracy theories of the Church, throws in a bit of fiction, writes it like a Bond film on fast forward (it's so fast you just can't understand it!), throws in long-winded speeches about bogus history, then writes all this in a form of prose that would be apt for a 7 year old.

That's why he's a bestseller, his books are so easy to read. He makes the chapters so short that you sound smart by finishing 12 in one night without breaking sweat, then just rants on about Catholicism and Opus Dei until the cows come home.

Here's the four reasons why he's a bestseller:

1. His books are inexplicably easy to read.

2. The Vatican expressly said not to read them.

3. It pays out on the Church. Big time.

4. Gives an alternate interpretation of the Holy Grail, which has everyone prancing around in joy, even though it the theory was clearly explained as a clear coherent idea in books like Holy Blood, Holy Grail, the authors of that book actually sued Brown for stealing their ideas.

I myself quite like the idea of Mary Maguedelin being the Grail, however there is so much bogus in the book that it leaves me feeling like a 7 year old and confused.

García Márquez without any doubt.. Hemingway's works is like the start of comercial literature.. Balzac needs diferent points of view

ah, i ve forgotten write the holy bible

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Originally Posted by JoanS

ah, i ve forgotten write the holy bible

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You're kidding, right?

Hemingway, Coelho; Rowling and Brown are not considered to be writers.

James fennimore cooper is the most overrated writer of all time. Mark twain bashed him in an essay and i have never read the last of the mohicans the same way again.

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Originally Posted by Axle1017

James fennimore cooper is the most overrated writer of all time. Mark twain bashed him in an essay and i have never read the last of the mohicans the same way again.

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Well, Mark Twain also bashed Jane Austen. Twain wrote, "Just the omission of Jane Austen’s books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn’t a book in it." I'm not sure I buy into this though...;)

Nicholas Sparks. I thought the movies had more information then his books, and that time spent I'll never get back. Ever.