who is the most overrated writer ever?

"Disbelief?" :lol: "Disdain", perhaps... but never disbelief. I'll never underestimate the opinions of those who have yet to outgrow their superheroes in capes and Speedos and WWF.:D Paranoia? You'd have to be far more than "paranoid" to believe that any opinions voiced on an internet forum are likely to undermine the reputations of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickens... or even Bukowski for that matter (unfortunately).:rolleyes:

Thanks Drkshadow, I feel redeemed now. THis thread has been pretty funny...

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Originally Posted by stlukesguild

Art by its very nature is subjective.

Yes... certainly it all comes down to opinions... but I'll say it again, some opinions are better than others.:D

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All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others, right? ;)

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Originally Posted by stlukesguild

"Disbelief?" :lol: "Disdain", perhaps... but never disbelief. I'll never underestimate the opinions of those who have yet to outgrow their superheroes in capes and Speedos and WWF.:D Paranoia? You'd have to be far more than "paranoid" to believe that any opinions voiced on an internet forum are likely to undermine the reputations of Shakespeare, Tolstoy, Dickens... or even Bukowski for that matter (unfortunately).:rolleyes:

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Shhh, you're ruining the punch line!

Stephenie Meyer, Dan Brown, Nicholas Sparks honestly not woth the money. The entire Twilight collection costed 70€ that's a lot of money

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Originally Posted by Sarai

Stephenie Meyer, Dan Brown, Nicholas Sparks honestly not woth the money. The entire Twilight collection costed 70€ that's a lot of money

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Yes, but no one rates these authors very highly to begin with, so its a rather moot point.

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Originally Posted by kelby_lake

All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others, right? ;)

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I know you're probably joking - not that stlukes even said that all animals are equal - but I would argue that that is simply not the case. Equal in what? Strength, dexterity, vision? In the case of literary study: intelligence, ambition, an artistic leaning, a negative capability, so to speak, which are all qualities that are hardly given in equal portions to everyone. There's no reason to assume everyone is capable of the same things when approaching a text, and that's taking for granted that everyone involved is putting in the same amount of effort to get to the level to make perceptive critical assessments.

In the case of say, someone whose first literary series is Twilight, versus one who has read the entire Western canon; these opinions are certainly not equal.

I think Dickens is overrated. Sure, he wrote a lot of things and he wrote about the strife of the middle and lower classes of England, but his characters are so boring. There are good people who are simply good people without any serious character flaws, there are bad people who are bad, and there are people in the middle who have absolutely no personalities and are simply there for the good people to be nice to and the bad people to abuse.

For everyone who says J.K. Rowling is overrated, please bear in mind that the Harry Potter series is a series of children's books that were written simply to entertain children. If you go into them expecting incredible depth then, yes, you will be disappointed.

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

I know you're probably joking - not that stlukes even said that all animals are equal - but I would argue that that is simply not the case. Equal in what? Strength, dexterity, vision? In the case of literary study: intelligence, ambition, an artistic leaning, a negative capability, so to speak, which are all qualities that are hardly given in equal portions to everyone. There's no reason to assume everyone is capable of the same things when approaching a text, and that's taking for granted that everyone involved is putting in the same amount of effort to get to the level to make perceptive critical assessments.

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Speaking of having knowledge about literature . . . you do know Kelby was making an allusion to Animal Farm right?

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Originally Posted by Reread

For everyone who says J.K. Rowling is overrated, please bear in mind that the Harry Potter series is a series of children's books that were written simply to entertain children. If you go into them expecting incredible depth then, yes, you will be disappointed.

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Harry Potter has a lot of depth actually. It's fascinating to delve into all the literary criticism on Potter, which I've been doing to prepare for my Harry Potter post that I promised, and see all the different interpretations of the overall series (of individual books, of individual chapters, of individual characters), sub-textual readings, analysis of its motifs, discussions about its structure, its place in literary history, its place in fantasy literature, its place in children's literature, its place in pop culture. There is just so many angles to approach it from, so many little things to analyze, such fertile ground for scholarship.

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Originally Posted by Drkshadow03

Speaking of having knowledge about literature . . . you do know Kelby was making an allusion to Animal Farm right?

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Hah. Missed the layup on that one. My point stands regardless.

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Originally Posted by Koa

exactly my though! i cant persuade myself to do something that is fashionable to do...like that da vinci thing...the more it gets famous, the less it attracts me...

i agree on kerouac... and i really cant understand shakespeare but apparently that's my problem...

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It's alright, neither can Turgenev. George Orwell might have something to say to you about that though.

http://www.orwell.ru/library/essays/lear/english/e_ltf

Besides Melville? Ok, that Twilight writer. Those books are terrible. Maybe I should finish that novel. . .apparently is doesn't have to be good to sell. . .:angel:

Oh wow. I can agree that Grapes of Wrath was not as "GREAT" as I had been led to believe, but East of Eden was phenomonal in it's focus on man's ability to choose what rules him.

Speaking of having knowledge about literature . . . you do know Kelby was making an allusion to Animal Farm right?

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Originally Posted by mayneverhave

Hah. Missed the layup on that one. My point stands regardless.

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I was making the allusion, in my geeky way ;)

The point of that quote, as I see it, is that in theory everybody's opinion is valid, but of course some are less valid than others. We claim democracy but really, we're not going to let a 9 year old's judgment on War and Peace be of the same worth as an English professor of 30 years- so let's just be openly elitest :)

Every name could be uttered as overrated and thats okay to some extend.But there is only one single name that I'm pretty sure that it's not overrated,and that's Shakespeare

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Originally Posted by Drkshadow03

Harry Potter has a lot of depth actually. It's fascinating to delve into all the literary criticism on Potter, which I've been doing to prepare for my Harry Potter post that I promised, and see all the different interpretations of the overall series (of individual books, of individual chapters, of individual characters), sub-textual readings, analysis of its motifs, discussions about its structure, its place in literary history, its place in fantasy literature, its place in children's literature, its place in pop culture. There is just so many angles to approach it from, so many little things to analyze, such fertile ground for scholarship.

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Don't get me wrong. I love Harry Potter and I do agree there is a lot of depth. J.K. Rowling created a fascinating world with wonderful characters. I'm simply pointing out that if you look at Harry Potter and expect it to be comparable to something like War and Peace or Paradise Lost then, yes, you won't think it measures up. I think the entire question of what author is overrated depends entirely on your individual standards.