I think Henry James is over rated too. I didn't dislike Turn of the Screw, and I didn't dislike Washington Square. I wasn't impressed with either though. I always heard wonderful things about him, but I've never been impressed by any of his books. I think Edith Wharton is under rated. I hadn't even head of her. I just happened to stumble upon Ethan Frome, and loved it. Now I've read a great many of her books, and they're all wonderful. I don't think I could pick a favorite.
Courtny
Austen is okay. Although the movie did bring the book to life bettr than the book does. A seriously overrated author is Nathaniel Hawthorne. HE goes on and on about nothing. My friends and I did a rewrite of the Scarlet Letter and were able to put all into less than a hundred words. What a waste of paper!!!
Crisaor, say something!Originally Posted by Guzmán
Hey I really like your work. Some of it reminds me of mail I get from my friends and family in far away/exotic countries, writing in calligraphy, and my love of old books and mapsAs for my own work, after a good many years working as a realist painter of sorts, my current work is abstract and rooted in my passions for books, music, architecture, among other things. The works are all collage... constructed of materials taken from old books (EeeeK!) and other printed materials. I'll post a couple here, but many more can be found at my Webshots page at:
http://community.webshots.com/user/stlukesguildit also evokes Henri Matisse's later period of cutouts when he worked with construction paper because he was too frail to stand at his easel to paint. http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h1...a/a2883a29.gif
Maybe you will start a separate topic about your art and where people can share ideas/images of theirs.
Hmm. I find it impossible to call Joyce overrated... When critics call him the most influential writer of 20th century English Literature, I don't understand how that can really be found unwarranted. I mean, the man basically invented Modernism, sure Proust, Kafka, Woolf, and a few others joined in the fun, but James Joyce used stream-of-consciousness in a way no one had before, and in a way most authors STILL take from. There can be no doubt that Joyce changed the way we look at language, and Samuel Beckett only followed with more brilliance on that same subject.
I think it's incredibly hard to prove James Joyce overrated because really he's the first author to question what literature and language really are, and I find the ultimate level of expertise in any art form is reached when one has such a thorough knowledge of his art that he can question it.
So overrated... I'd like to say Hemingway because I despise his style, but I'll throw out one on whom we can all agree, J.K. Rowling.
Agreement. Jurassic Park and its sequel were great, but every other book I've read from him is confusing and tiring. Though I hear Timeline is good. (Is it?)
College kids around me make a great fuss about Chuck Palahniuk. I read and was marginally interested at the beginnings and partway into the middles of Invisible Monsters and Lullaby, but the great plots he comes up with are overshadowed by a annoying writing style that can only be stood for so long.
'...A cast of your skull, sir, until the original is available, would be an ornament to any anthropological museum. It is not my intention to be fulsome, but I confess that I covet your skull.' --Dr. Mortimer, The Hound of the Baskervilles
Very nice artwork, stlukesguild!
Cuppajoe, selling books even if you can't stand the writer, is a hard argument to follow. It's very difficult to argue with success. That's one reason I sort of hesitate before agreeing on J.K. Rowling. Yes, I believe she's overated, but she's "crying all the way to the bank", to paraphrase Liberacre.
Some of us laugh
Some of us cry
Some of us smoke
Some of us lie
But it's all just the way
that we cope with our lives...
I agree. I mean, Hawthorne may be considered a 'Great' American writer, but I find it difficult to get at all absorbed by his work. I am currently attempting the read "The House of the Seven Gables" and I am really struggling to stay with it. I guess that's just the style of the times, because so many other authors of the nineteenth century wrote in the same way. Maybe the nineteenth century audience liked it, but for a modern reader who is used to having things much faster, such a long, ponderous style can become tedious. I will try and finish it, however. Fingers crossed!
Well, I didn't hate The Scarlet Letter when we read it the way the rest of the class seemed to (though about half of them did not actually read it, so their opinion need not matter much), but I understand House of the Seven Gables is actually much worse with regard to "going on and on about nothing". You might try his children's stories; they're really quite enjoyable - from back when children's stories didn't insult the intelligence. I don't love Hawthorne, but he could be worse. I don't know that he's overrated. I really think, with regard to "difficulty" and the invitation to "stay with it", James is far more formidable (two of his late novels have both shaken off my efforts at conquering them) - yet I really consider him infinitely superior.
Faulkner. I know a lot of people think he's great but I'm just not feeling that vibe at all.
Faulkner's actually becoming one of my favorites. His style is so poetic, and every little sensual perception related lends itself so well to each character's personality. He's truly a poet at heart, which I think is why his stream of consciousness works so well.
I agree about Palahniuk though. It's probably the style (ultra-modernism or whatever) but the 2nd Grade level sentence stucture and miniscule paragraphs(I know this seems trivial, but not to me; long paragraphs- or at least thoughts that are examined through writing - are important) really just didn't strike a chord with me. I've only read "Fight Club" though.
and somehow a dog
has taken itself & its tail considerably away
into the mountains or sea or sky, leaving
behind: me, wag.
- John Berryman
I agree with regards to "Sanctuary" and "As I Lay Dying", especially the latter which I was stupid enough to have to chosen to do a seminar presentation on. To lie dying is definitely a superior state to my wretchedness as I lay on my bed reading that book.
Have you tried "The Sound and the Fury" and "Absalom, Absalom!" though? Try those two. You might like those more.
With overrated authors the first that come to mind are Shakespeare's plays and the novels of F. Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway. Although I like the style of the two aforementioned novelists, I find that their works don't hold enough substance to be worthy of the fame they have.
books tell you about the common experiences of life. "Classic" books tell you how to gain knowledge from the common experiences of life.
a) why the flip would you want to have someone tell you how to live when you do perfectly fine at it?
b) you're already living the common experiences of life, so why read about it?
...
But I, being poor, have only my dreams;
I have spread my dreams under your feet;
Tread softly, because you tread on my dreams.
-- William Butler Yeats.
Good books don't "tell" you how to live. They present, not command. The books you're describing are self-help books.a) why the flip would you want to have someone tell you how to live when you do perfectly fine at it?
A reader should interact with his or her book. Not everyone's experiences are identical, and the ones that are very similar may be presented in a new light so as to allow the reader to understand it differently. Remember, books are experiences within themselves.b) you're already living the common experiences of life, so why read about it?
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