Overrated Authors

[NoJo]

(Present company excluded)


Anais Nin

Mirthless nymphomania punctuated with shallow epigrams

 

[shereads]

Norman Mailer. He used to be overrated. He might not be rated anymore; I haven't checked.

 

[Guest]

While he wrote one of my favourite books of all time, I have to say: Stephen King (expected to get shot/flamed/strangled for that one).

 

[shereads]

Norman Mailer. He used to be overrated. He might not be rated anymore; I haven't checked.

Except for "The Executioners Song." That was pretty good.

I can't dismiss other people's work without acknowledging that they're doing better than I am, or at least more. I think this stems from the time my sister and I were making fun of the Miss America Pageant, which our mom dearly loved (she kept score on a little notepad.) We were heaping scorn on a contestant in the talent competition, who played a tune with spoons. Mom said, "Well, at least she's trying!"

Ditto Norman Mailer.

 

[MLyons]

While he wrote one of my favourite books of all time, I have to say: Stephen King (expected to get shot/flamed/strangled for that one).

I agree.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

I agree.

So do I.

 

[impressive]

While he wrote one of my favourite books of all time, I have to say: Stephen King (expected to get shot/flamed/strangled for that one).

Couple of gems -- the rest pulp. (One of his is a favorite of mine as well.)

 

[Guest]

Have I ever mentioned that a lot of people here seem to have impeccable taste?

 

[MLyons]

I can't dismiss other people's work without acknowledging that they're doing better than I am, or at least more. I think this stems from the time my sister and I were making fun of the Miss America Pageant, which our mom dearly loved (she kept score on a little notepad.) We were heaping scorn on a contestant in the talent competition, who played a tune with spoons. Mom said, "Well, at least she's trying!"

You're right. I can't argue with that either. Indeed, my own work has no where to go but up, so I have to be careful about slighting others who, although I might dislike them, are doing better than I am.

 

[NoJo]

God.

Not a single chuckle or hardon in over fifteen hundred pages.

 

[cahab]

God.

Not a single chuckle or hardon in over fifteen hundred pages.

Song of solomon, surely?

 

[Liar]

So do I.

Me too.



Ernest Hemmingway. Sorry, can't digest the dude.

Marquis de Sade. Famous for being not much more perverted than the average litster, and many litsters frankly writes better.

 

[shereads]

God.

Not a single chuckle or hardon in over fifteen hundred pages.

You didn't grin when Moses tied his ass to a tree?




Stephen King: the annoying thing is that nobody likes his writing and everybody's read it.

 

[NoJo]

You're right, cahab.

Also the bit where they anoint Jesus' feet with baby oil. I forget the details.

 

[Guest]

Anne Rice.

 

[Guest]

Stephen King: the annoying thing is that nobody likes his writing and everybody's read it.

That's marketing for ya. His books suffocated all others on the shelves, too.

I don't 'arf envy the bloke.

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Anne Rice.

Another big ditto.

 

[NoJo]

Me too.



Ernest Hemmingway. Sorry, can't digest the dude.

Marquis de Sade. Famous for being not much more perverted than the average litster, and many litsters frankly writes better.

Ditto and ditto. Hemingway. Macho wanker. I wished he'd had his cock amputated by a marlin.

 

[Joe Wordsworth]

Heinlein, Tolkein, Assmov: legendary paramounts of awesome empires of.... crappy little geeky genres.

 

[sweetnpetite]

Me too.



Ernest Hemmingway. Sorry, can't digest the dude.

Marquis de Sade. Famous for being not much more perverted than the average litster, and many litsters frankly writes better.

Yes, Hemingway.

Can't agree with the King posters though. I think it's the other way. He's better than he gets credit for. (my oppinion)

 

[Tongue lasher]

While he wrote one of my favourite books of all time, I have to say: Stephen King (expected to get shot/flamed/strangled for that one).

I agree.

So do I.

Of course you do, Lauren. Why am I not surprised?
He's nowhere near obscure enough for you.

 

[BlackShanglan]

Marquis de Sade. Famous for being not much more perverted than the average litster, and many litsters frankly writes better.

Amen. "Justine" was one of the dullest books I ever read, and an immense dissapointment. Nothing like a highwayman who goes off on a five-page earnest lecture on the moral unpinnings of self-interest. Yawn. Less philosophy, more flogging, please.

John Steinbeck. All right, "The Chrysanthemums" is pretty good, but the rest ... ugh. All of his novels have the same plot: "Once upon a time there lived a man, and everything he ever loved died. Horribly." Someone tie that man to a stake and beat him to death with the collected works of Matthew Arnold.

I'll propose an opposite as well: most justly "rated" author. I vote Salman Rushdie. It took me forever to read him because I was so heartily sick of hearing about him, and so convinced that he was just a hack with a talent for making a political spectacle of himself. I would now gladly serve time at the pillory for the injustice of that assumption. The first time I read "The Prophet's Hair," I fell in love. Wild honey, indeed.

Shanglan

(Oh, all right. I would glady serve time in the pillory anyway, and I suspect that we all know that. But he really is brilliant.)

 

[Lauren Hynde]

Oh boy...

 

[NoJo]

Heinlein, Tolkein, Assmov: legendary paramounts of awesome empires of.... crappy little geeky genres.

Ditto thrice (although I enjoy Tolkein, he's definitaly way overrated). Joe, you must know your SF if you dislike those guys.

 

[shereads]

>ducking under desk before blurting this out; expecting hurled sharp objects<

Dan Brown. "The Da Vinci Code" is entertaining. I applaud the concept and the marketing. But Dan Brown is to writers what William Shatner is to actors.