Shakespeare is the most overrated.
Shakespeare is the most overrated
Let me inject Paulo Coelho, unless of course we are only supposed to be bashing classic authors. The Alchemist is not even suitable for a boat anchor. It is definitely below any classical author mentioned here.
"I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita." -- Vladimir Nabokov
Before I start I'll admit that what I say may have been said on this thread many times already but I only read a few pages back (partly because of time restrictions and partly because my laptop has decided that every time I go somewhere on the internet it's going to open a new window...I don't know if I've accidently changed the settings or my laptop's just having an off day...anyway).
Firstly, it really isn't fair to put authors like J.K.Rowling and Stephenie Meyer in this thread since they are not highly rated in the first place so can't really be overrated. It's like saying junk-food is overrated! Nobody says it's nutritious but sometimes it's nice to indulge. But you can't compare it with a really good meal from a nice restaurant.
Secondly, as for the question, I'm not sure who to pick. There are novels I've read that I didn't feel lived up to the hype but whether they are overrated or I just didn't enjoy them personally is hard to say. I think I'll add my vote to Joyce (partly because I'm currently studying for my Modern Lit exam and I can see Ulysses sitting on my bed...)
I'll admit that all I have read of Joyce is Ulysses so I may be judging him unfairly. I can also admit that there is some merit to the novel but it reads like an experiment. A really really really long experiment. I'm glad I read it but mainly because I feel like it's something you can hold up as an achievement. I feel like it would be the same if I ran a marathon; I wouldn't enjoy it but I'd be proud I did it.
I think when Virginia Woolf wrote Mrs Dalloway she said something about taking Joyce's idea but making it actually work or doing it better or something. I completely agree. Ulysses is pretty interesting as an experiment but, for me, as a novel it doesn't really work.
Wait! Scrap my last post because I know who I think the most overrated writer EVER is. I can't believe I didn't think of him before. Wordsworth. I absolutely fail to see how he got his position in the literary canon! Unlike writers such as Joyce or Fitzgerald or Emily Bronte, who's works I don't like as much as their hype but can see some merit in, I don't see anything in any way special about Wordsworth.
It's not because I think he was a pompous, arrogant arse - which I do - but I don't see one thing that makes his writing more worthy than thousands of other mediocre poets. I thought for a long time that I just didn't like the romantic poets but then I read some others and I do. I LOVE Blake and I really enjoy some of Coleridge and I'll have a read through some Shelley now and then but I just can't stand Wordsworth.
I know people have been criticised on this thread for throwing out a writer of well repute and then leaving at that with no explanation so I'm trying to think how I can best justify my opinion. The problem, mainly, is that that is just it with Wordsworth...there's nothing. He leaves me cold. I feel like there's no feeling in his poetry whatsoever and I can't even say I think he's technically good. I feel like he was a poet who tried to make up for a lack of quality with quantity. His poetry seems longer than it needs to be (I know I said something similar about Joyce and thought I'd clarify; I have no problem with a text being long if it needs to be but I think needless length is one of the biggest sins writers commit) and padded out with...nothing. It's all so nothingy.
I know that hasn't been very explanatory, more like a rant, but after my last exam tomorrow I'll maybe dig up some Wordsworth and give examples of what I mean.
he appears to have weird feelings for nature in Nutting
If he isn't the worst, then Wordsworth is certainly near the top of the list.
Disregarding J K Rowling and other obvious writers of non-literary fiction - although I wouldn't like to give that term a definition - the king of the overrated writers is Ian McEwan, who has not written anything worth reading for a very long time. Followed very closely be the prancing prince of dross -Martin Amis.
Last edited by no one special; 05-14-2009 at 04:33 AM.
"We are not what we are, and we are what we are not."
Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness: An Essay on Phenomenological Ontology
The most overrated writer ever was AYN RAND!
I don't think it's possible to accurately answer this question with only one writer, but since the question was posed in the singular, I'd have to say Ayn Rand, not because her writing style was necessarily bad but because her love of plutocracy and unfettered capitalism strike me as amazingly stupid and loathsome. BTW, she thought that smoking was really cool and that cigarette health warnings were some sort of socialist plot, and guess what she died of? Well, at least she proved the existence of poetic justice...
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The most overrated writer ever was AYN RAND!
Yes... a mediocre writer and less-than-mediocre thinker turned into a cultural icon: a brilliant artist and profound philosopher.
Beware of the man with just one book. -Ovid
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No, Rand was a better writer than Wordsworth.
Maybe you don't like Ayn Rand's philosophical viewpoint but shouldn't you be judging her as a writer? I happen to find the anarchy implicit in George Orwell's philosophical viewpoint equally stupid and loathsome but have to admit he is a very good writer.Originally Posted by Don Quixote Jr
About Salinger, i completely agree. I read his book after getting a great recommendation for it and found it lacking. It was just teenage angst
I cried for madder music and for stronger wine,
But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire,
Then falls thy shadow, Cynara! the night is thine;
And I am desolate and sick of an old passion,
Yea, hungry for thelips of my desire:
I have been faithful to thee Cynara! in my fashion.
Whose dystopian musings served as inspiration for what was destined to become, according to several infallible critical sources, 2007’s Videogame of the Year: BioShock! Indeed, case in point.The most overrated writer ever was AYN RAND!
Yes... a mediocre writer and less-than-mediocre thinker turned into a cultural icon: a brilliant artist and profound philosopher.
And, a bit lonely on this side of the seesaw perhaps, but my vote’s for Tolstoy/his battalion of translators...just never could get into that campy Karenin business.
Some of Coleridge's work is pretty dull, as can be Wordsworth.
Max Frisch. Montauk was practically unreadable. It jumped from scene to scene in the most confusing manner possible.
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