who is the most overrated writer ever?

[bluevictim]

Yes bluevictim, Your idea might be a real good one. Also, I was just saying this to someoene today - we should start another thread called 'under-rated authors'...what do you think of the idea? Seriously, there are many authors who never got their due recognition, expecially in the past. Some had to die first to be heard or noticed...sad, really.

It's a good idea. "Overrated Authors" and "Underrated Authors" (and variations on that theme) are pretty standard recurring threads at LitNet. I'm sure you'd be able to dig up an "Underrated Authors" thread just by flipping back a few pages in the "General Literature" forum. Naturally, the "Underrated Authors" threads often turn into "My Favorite Obscure Authors" threads in essence, and the current thread is pretty typical of the "Overrated Authors" threads -- consisting of complaints about "great" authors together with indignant defenses of the greatness of those authors (cf. the "Worst books you ever read" thread). I pretty much consider this activity the official sport of the LitNet.

[AuntShecky]

You know, I said that I wasn't going to comment on current or contemporary authors, but --
("Do I contradict myself?
Then, I contradict myself" --Walt Whitman) but--
why the popularity of Pat Conroy (not to be confused with Frank Conroy, under-rated author of Stop Time.)

Pat Conroy's novels have been filmed as movies -- one about a schoolteacher starring Jon Voight and one that
starred Barbra Streisand. But a few years ago I started reading the actual novel of Prince of Tides and I couldn't account for the author's success. So I couldn't/wouldn't finish, but I had read enough to think that the emotional content was maudlin and his prose style seemed amateurish to me. I could almost picture him at his desk with the thesaurus open!
And what was most disappointing was the author's inability to take artistic risks.

[nebish]

I totally endorse your opinion of Prince of Tides, the scenes in New York were particularly embarrassing: cliche'd plot and behaviour, an insult to the critical reader. It may be the problem moderate writers encounter when they try to go beyond their native soil.

[elfiedaelf]

Most overrated Writer....

Hmm.... I would have to say shakespear!

[loggats]

I don't think any writer rises to sustained prominence without giving something meaningful. Even though I dislike their achievements (i'm thinking of d.h.lawrence right now) I'll acknowledge their contributions. Third rate writers are overrated, by ignorant readers.

[stlukesguild]

Most overrated Writer....

Hmm.... I would have to say shakespear!

Uhhh... yeah... and that Michelangelo... what an overrated artist. Couldn't paint a lick.

[stlukesguild]

For those who don't like Kerouac and continue to follow a day in day out existence, he was railing against you, against society and norms. Try the Darma Bums, Kerouac deserves a second chance.

Ah yes... an artist railing against the norms of bourgeois society. How original. That's never been done before. I now see the error of my ways.

[papayahed]

I think that Tom Wolfe is the most overrated writer ever!I detested his new journalism and find his novels badly written and almost entirely lacking in any literary merit. Honestly just because he's from the south and wears a white suit literary editors of magazines seem to equate him to a Faulkner or Dickinson instead of just the grubby overvalued little (in every sense) hack that he is!

Agreed.

[jon1jt]

For those who don't like Kerouac and continue to follow a day in day out existence, he was railing against you, against society and norms. Try the Darma Bums, Kerouac deserves a second chance.

Two thumbs down for the Potter series!

Ahhh, when the hell is America going to add Kerouac to Mount Rushmore?! B-Mental, you and me need to team up on StLuke, he's at it bad mouthing Kerouac again!

[jon1jt]

For those who don't like Kerouac and continue to follow a day in day out existence, he was railing against you, against society and norms. Try the Darma Bums, Kerouac deserves a second chance.

Ah yes... an artist railing against the norms of bourgeois society. How original. That's never been done before. I now see the error of my ways.

Why is it that I imagine you as a bathrobe, pipe-smoking type?

[aabbcc]

From my personal experiences... Coelho. Quasi-spiritual kitsch written by a quasi-spiritual wannabe. I cannot even understand why, oh why was I torturing myself by giving him a second chance, and then a third, despite knowing somewhere in the bottom of everything that he would not get any better (that is the fact you can realise in the first ten pages), and that his popularity at the time was not due to the quality of the written material, but to something else, maybe that typical mass effect, suddenly everybody was talking about him, so it turned out that everybody was reading him, if for nothing else than for the sake of curiosity. (On the side note, a similar phenomenon is happening now with Beigbeder, whom I have not read yet, only skimmed once in library, so I will not comment... But every year or two some popular author ends up in that position.)

I can think of several other authors who were literary disappointments for me (e.g. Salinger, or Pamuk), but I doubt anyone could compete Coelho in this.

[stlukesguild]

Why is it that I imagine you as a bathrobe, pipe-smoking type?

Nope... no bathrobes, I sleep in the nude. Drives the wife nuts, though. She always wants to know what I'd do if there was a fire. (I'd probably be saving the books). No pipe either. I don't smoke smoke at all. But I do drink I'll take a good dark British beer (Samuel Smith Imperial Stout... Young's Double Chocolate Malt) or something Belgian.

So what are the habits of a Kerouac lover? Hmmm... I somehow imagine those skinny French cigarette, wine coolers, and speedos.

[PeterL]

Ah yes... an artist railing against the norms of bourgeois society. How original. That's never been done before. I now see the error of my ways.

That is good. Everyone should be willing to recognize one's own errors.

[AuntShecky]

I don't dislike the works of Sylvia Plath, but I wonder if her reputation comes from our romantic sentiment about the details of her life.

Flannery O'Connor -- just ok, but some see her as God's gift to American literature.

(Okay, auntie, now you're getting catty.)

[HotKarl]

--"That's not writing. It's typing."

Truman Capote's response to a question about what he thinks of On the Road.

I'm inclined to agree Mr. Capote. I'm inclined to agree.