I happen to think Jane Austen is a very influential and compassionate author. I enjoy her books. In my opinion, F. Scott Fitzgerald seems a little overrated.
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I happen to think Jane Austen is a very influential and compassionate author. I enjoy her books. In my opinion, F. Scott Fitzgerald seems a little overrated.
Oh my, I don't think I can forgive that comment. I love Fitzgerald.Quote:
Originally Posted by kjt1981
Please don't bite my head off, but might I mention Dickens? Yes, fabulous ideas, but rewriting the same ones into a thousand different novels gets triesome...
Oh, and how could I forget...
STEINBECK
.
I do not really like Hemingway very much, ditto the verbose Victor Hugo, though I have only read "Les Misérables", I found it boring. I do not really like Joyce very much, I think he is pretentious; this may be because I do not "get" his work, but I found Ulysses to be pretentious, though I can admit to its "artistic worth". "Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man" was also distinctly average, in my opinion. I guess a lot of authors have minor works which are fallaciously regarded as being "classics" simply because that specific author wrote them-Charles Dickens, for example wrote many book, not all of which are in my opinion "classics", or even "good. Balzac, on the other hand, wrote a lot of books, most of which could be considered classics. Beckett is a bit hit and miss for me-I love "Molloy", "Malone Dies" was hit and miss, but "The Unnamed" was (for me at least) gibberish.
Dan Brown is also over-rated, though I did not expect him to be that great.
Maybe not an author but definitely a book. Well it's a short story..."The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. It's supposed to be a powerful feminist piece but I thought it was totally over the top and ridiculous. It seemed like a spoof. I'd be interested in talking to someone else who's read it actually, and see if they liked it...
I've not read her other things though. I may be interested in reading her autobiography, cos she seems like an interesting person. But 'The Yellow Wallpaper' sounded like a joke all over. And it's supposedly her most famous piece.
I have to disagree; :D I think 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is ingenious. I've written essays about it, and I think that although the plot has a relatively simple and linear structure, there is a multitude of symbolisms and layered meanings that can be discovered. If you just start from her description of the wallpaper as "a smouldering unclean yellow", you can reach interesting conclusions. Check for the definitions the MacMillan English Dictionary gives for smoulder . One of them reads "to feel very strong emotions that you do not express in words, especially anger or sexual feelings".
Moreover, she says that the paper is "strangely faded by the slow-turning sunlight". Check De Vries' Dictionary of Symbols and Imagery and the symbolisms for "sun". "male creator", "King, ruling by divine right", etc.
In conclusion, the reason this story is considered a powerful feminist piece is not what's on the surface of the story (which personally I find intriguing as it is), but what's underneath
i certainly agree with Iago that 'The Yellow Wallpaper' is a wonderful text. I particularly like it for the slow burning descent into madness and the powerful effect it eventually had upon Charlotte Perkins Gilman's doctor Weir Mitchell to rethink his prescription of rest cure.
I think Paulo Coelho is hugely overrated. Everybody told me that The Alchemist was wonderful and that it would change my life. Sure, it was good, but I don't hink it was that special.
I guess Coelho has to be seen within the social context (as, indeed, it is the case with all writers). Judging Coelho by his text alone, he surely is rather average. But part of the "myth" is the social impact his books have created.
I love 'The Yellow Wallpaper' as well.
Maybe we're only discussing classic authors who are overrated, but the most overrated author I have ever attempted reading is Robert Jordan.
Robert Jordan? Definitely. His “The Wheel of Time” series are a little disaster in my opinion. Ok, he has an imagination, but why everything is just like a soup opera? I know this sounds utterly rough and impolite, but I have never enjoyed his style. I mean his books are not beautiful at all!
As for Coelho I like his books and his a bit melancholic style of writing. But as almost every bestseller his works are a bit overrated. They are just too popular to be jugged with a clear mind.
YAY! I'm not alone in despising Robert Jordan or thinking his books are fantasy soap operas. This makes me very happy.
Hehhe, it was the same with me too. By now everybody was saying to me: “This is a great book you should read it”. Well, I read it. It was just terrible. I couldn’t stand it. And the way the story is finishing in such a hurry in the end if the first book; it isn’t complete and full-blooded. It was a great disappointment. Of course now, I am almost scared to say my opinion in public, because everybody says ‘You are mad! This book is Awesome!”
I
hate
Dan
Brown.
Such non-sense. I could only get through three chapters.
AMEN! Why on earth are his horribly written books so popular?