who is the most overrated writer ever?

[bluosean]

Steinbeck, Hemingway (sp?), Whitman, O. Henry, and Kather would be my choices.

Jewett is under-rated though. She is fun reading.

[kelby_lake]

Heh! who would want to be transported to a world where if you shake a stick up and down a few times, white sparks come out!

That sounds like a creepy euphemism....

[Oread]

I don't understand all the votes for Steinbeck! His style is simplistic but his stories are deeply insightful. Of Mice and Men is an amazing story, I can get goose bumps just thinking about it. Plus, I can't help but love all the plugs for Monterey and Salinas =). Two books that stand out in my mind as particular objects of hatred are Grendel and Siddhartha.

[islandclimber]

This world - hell, I'd go so far as to say I really, really don't like that book. When it comes to that text, or Harry Potter, I'm almost of the mind to say I like Harry Potter more (almost, though I think I like to Kill a Mockingbird more, as it is only one volume, and only 300 pages as apposed to several thousand).

my thoughts exactly! haha

[islandclimber]

I don't understand all the votes for Steinbeck! His style is simplistic but his stories are deeply insightful. Of Mice and Men is an amazing story, I can get goose bumps just thinking about it. Plus, I can't help but love all the plugs for Monterey and Salinas =). Two books that stand out in my mind as particular objects of hatred are Grendel and Siddhartha.

I quite liked Of Mice and Men too... most likely my favourite work by Steinbeck, although I wouldn't call it his best... I don't see him as overrated... although I don't like East of Eden that much... thinking of overrated writers although I don't know so much anymore as I am not sure what current opinion is of him.. but Theodore Dreiser is definitely one of them in my mind.. Saroyan to an extent as well.. and Charles Bukowski is the most overrated poet ever... I despise his poetry almost to an irrational extent!

[Nabokov_love]

I truly enjoyed your input in this discussion and must agree that although some authors may be overrated currently, they will take their place among the entertainers of our day. Granted, they are not brilliant pieces of philisophical inquiry, but not all great literature is!

[Nabokov_love]

Ok my last post was actually just a reply to rabid_reader, but I forgot to quote

But to add my say into this muddle of writers who did more than I ever have, I would say that Cormac McCarthy is just one author I cannot quite grasp where his praise comes from. Maybe I need only to read other pieces of fiction, but after reading the reviews and comments on 'The Road' I picked it up and after a day put it down sadly discouraged. I was eager to finish it, hence the short time of reading it took, because I was looking for the proof of his praises. I think mainly I just didn't "get it"

As for some of the other authors on here, I am slightly saddened at the choices, not liking a book and not being able to appreciate its impact are very different things. I say this mainly pertaining to Kerouac. He was not the most talented writer, and certainly not the most creative... but he influenced an entire generation of beat writers, poets and citizens. I suppose it spoke to them at the time and so he deserves his praise, much like Britney Spears deserves recognition for single handlely starting a young female pop/stripper phase

But seriously, Kundera... Salinger... these men are amazing That is all a matter of personal preference though.

[Babak Movahed]

The absolute worst writer I could think of is Alodous Huxley! Brave New World is so bad that i threw up a little in my mouth after finishing it. The entire time I was reading it I was thinking "when is this going to get good?"... it didn't get good at all.

[kelby_lake]

I quite liked Brave New World

[breeze]

In my modest opinion it`s Leo Tolstoy. His style is awkward, his morals are hopelessly out of date, his books aren`t teaching, they`re preaching.

[Drkshadow03]

Socrates. Socrates is the most overrated writer ever.

[PeterL]

Socrates. Socrates is the most overrated writer ever.

Socrates is not known to have written anything that survived. Did you mean Plato? If so, then why? Or was it because of a particular translator?

[Drkshadow03]

Socrates is not known to have written anything that survived. Did you mean Plato? If so, then why? Or was it because of a particular translator?

I am well aware Socrates never wrote anything. Heh. I guess I flubbed that attempt at a nonsensical/ironic joke.

[Red-Headed]

im 100% sure that the most over rated writer is William Shakespeare, i mean come on its so dull. i dont care that its the basic for all literature ITS DULL

We must be talking about a different Shakespeare. I always thought that the 'History Plays' were marvellous. Regardless of various historical inaccuracies. Some of the later plays are anything but dull. Mind you, I've never really rated his comedies, with the possible exception of The Merry Wives of Windsor. Although it's probably best to overlook the 'cheese-eating' jokes as they could be considered a tad racist now. Although Sir Hugh Evans probably deserved the cheese jibes. Many people don't even know why the Welsh are associated with eating cheese.

[Barbarous]

I find Orwell's work to be a bit overrated, along with Vonnegut. Now both these writers represent to me this flow of stiff excitement (a contradictory metaphor, eh? hehe) once lost when a reader discovers something of a different vision. The vision can be in multiples (and of different things) but with that said, I enjoyed Animal Farm, but not 1984, etc...