If you are going to consider J.K. Rowling overrated, please then concur with me in calling Christopher Paloni overrated (although I believe Rowling is not.) I mean, it was basically a bit of Harry Potter, a bit of Lord of the Rings and a bit of the Chronicles of Narnia with other fantasy series tidbits thrown in.
People are going to absolutely hate me for saying this...
I don't like Dickens.
Well, that isn't entirely true. I love Pickwick, but that's it. Dickens' humor is nice and enjoyable; Dickens' tales of gloom not so much.
"The time has come," the Walrus said,
"To talk of many things:
Of shoes--and ships--and sealing-wax--
Of cabbages--and kings--
And why the sea is boiling hot--
And whether pigs have wings."
Probably been said, but Christopher Paolini. Eragon/Eldest are just bad.
Tolkien, Koontz, and King!
D. H. Lawrence, Booker Prize winners and nominees (the ones I have had the misfortune to read), Orhan Pamuk, Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir. Not so much that I think they are overrated, but that I didn't like them.
Originally Posted by Stieg
Tolkein, no. Koontz and King, yes.
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Something From The Past Just Comes
And Stares Into My Soul
shoutgrace, lemme guess, you are located in Indonesia.
because you're quoting in Malay
F. Scott Fitzgerald is very overrated. His writing seems sloppy, almost like a trainwreck. And it's always about rich people whom I can't relate to.
Why is everyone naming Fitzgerald?
It's not about rich people, although they figure in it. I always thought it was more about how you might think that a materialistic life might be a fulfilling one, but how empty and pointless it really is. His characters usually end up with nothing and in a way have wasted their lives. Gatsby is poor but accumlates wealth in the hope of winning his girl, who, it eventually turns out, didn't really care that much for him and is a shallow coward. Dick Diver fights interal rage due to the responsibility of his wife's deteriorating mental health and feelings of guilt and frustration. In the Beautiful and Damned, they eveutally win all the money, but only to end up miserable creatures, and even after all they go through, they have their priorities wrong. Their best friends abandon them, and out of the three men at the start of the book, only one of them acheives critical success with their book - the one who was least likely to have, only to then succumb to writing rubbish for cash. The married couple gain wealth, but that is all, and they are miserable. sorry if i'm inaccurate, haven't read any of those for a while. But it is also supposed to be an portrayal of the jazz era and the whole new money versus old money thing (in Gatsby anyway, I think). He didn't finish the last tycoon, but apparently the main character is supposed to die. He is a good person who gets swallowed up by the greed of the industry. Or something like that.
I suppose some of his writing might seem sloppy, but he has some great passages, esp. when describing a loving relationship gone sour. I think he puts across feelings of hopelessness, dejection, suffering, angst, humiliation (which can be applied to most people, although perhaps in different circumstances), etc. quite well. I like the passages when the characters are falling in love less.
Anyway, my point is that it's not just about rich people, although perhaps I haven't explained very well. My memory is like a sieve.
But it's a truth universally acknowledged that he's bad. :P
Something From The Past Just Comes
And Stares Into My Soul
That might be an indication that he is overrated. What writer deserves their own holiday?
well, except maybe Shakespeare...
Last edited by Woland; 03-25-2007 at 02:34 PM.
"Well, God give them wisdom that have it; and those that are fools, let them use their talents."
- Feste, Twelfth Night
"...till human voices wake us and we drown."
- Eliot
John wrestle-with-the-bears Irving. That Scots twit whose name escapes me but supports the Hi Bees. Marilyn pain-in-butt French. Kurt stuck-in-a-time-warp Vonnegut, Harold Now-I'm-famous-I-can-have-an-opinion-on-everything Pinter, James gee-whizz-how-do-they-swallow-this-bunkum Ballard and many dozens of others who get their temporary fame in the literary rags
Last edited by ennison; 03-25-2007 at 03:57 PM.
Well, I haven't been able to read Fitzgerald since torturing myself through This Side of Paradise. Now that was one giant pile of rubbish. The main character had NO LIFE, NO LIFE AT ALL and he deserved every worst circumstance he suffered. What a pompous jerk and meanlingless meandering story. I am not sure I can read this author again.
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