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Overhated Literature

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mcb01932 Since: Mar, 2010
#1: Mar 7th 2012 at 7:59:26 AM

A spin-off of these two threads. What works of literature do you think get more hate than they deserve?

edited 7th Mar '12 7:59:46 AM by mcb01932

Jhimmibhob Since: Dec, 2010
#2: Mar 7th 2012 at 12:27:52 PM

In general, 20th-century literature that uses any lyric phrasing, or that trifles even mildly with Purple Prose. Hemingway was a genius, but because of him a generation of literary critics decided that terseness was the only acceptable option for serious prose.

NLK Mo A Since: May, 2010
#3: Mar 7th 2012 at 2:48:50 PM

Depending on where you go, I think The Inheritance Cycle gets a fair bit of this. Also, Twilight. The books aren't very good, but the amount of hatred they get is disproportionate.

Likes many underrated webcomics
DomaDoma Three-Puppet Saluter Since: Jan, 2001
Three-Puppet Saluter
#4: Mar 7th 2012 at 3:30:30 PM

Twilight is a terrible series, but it's overhated in that just about no one has anything new to say about it. Das_Sporking has some original insights (Meyer mistakes internal monologue about how Edward Sure Couldn't Like A Girl Like Me for misdirection; characters repeatedly infer that they get to do a stupid thing as long as they acknowledge it's stupid), but they're the only ones I've seen since Cleolinda.

Hail Martin Septim!
mcb01932 Since: Mar, 2010
#5: Mar 7th 2012 at 6:14:35 PM

  • I think Twilight is okay at best, but haters seem to hold it as the worst thing ever written (which it is not; that would be My Immortal).
  • I didn't expect Eragon to be a masterpiece, and when I read it, I got a pretty decent novel. But Chris Paolini was pretty young when he wrote it, and there aren't too many people in the world who would write a Doorstopper fantasy for their debut novel, especially at that age.

edited 7th Mar '12 6:14:56 PM by mcb01932

DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#6: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:39:54 AM

I'm getting sick of the Twilight-bashing, mainly because, as Doma Doma pointed out, everyone is just reiterating the old talking-points: "Lol, it's about SPARKLY VAMPIRES! OMFG, the message is ABSTINENCE!" But I haven't read the books myself, so I can't say whether it's undeserved. (In fact, the few pages I read were about as clumsy and creepy as any of the haters claim.)

[up]Wasn't Paolini over 20 when he got published? Still young, but not that young.

TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#7: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:48:22 AM

Nope. He made the New York Times Bestseller list when he was only nineteen, but the first production run done by his family of his first novel was when he was even younger. ( I love Wikipedia)

DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
mcb01932 Since: Mar, 2010
#9: Mar 8th 2012 at 8:18:00 AM

Paolini started writing Eragon when he was fifteen.

cityofmist turning and turning from Meanwhile City Since: Dec, 2010
turning and turning
#10: Mar 8th 2012 at 9:08:00 AM

I agree with what you're saying - Paolini's not a great writer but nor is he the worst writer ever - but, just saying, lots of people try to write doorstopper fantasy for their first novel. Many of them can be found on these forums.

Scepticism and doubt lead to study and investigation, and investigation is the beginning of wisdom. - Clarence Darrow
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#12: Mar 8th 2012 at 10:55:49 AM

[up]Looks good so far. Is it a comic book without the pictures or a screenplay, as my addled little brain cell cannot tell between the options?

ImipolexG frozen in time from all our yesterdays Since: Jan, 2001
frozen in time
#13: Mar 8th 2012 at 11:40:03 AM

I wrote a doorstopper fantasy when I was 15. I had the good sense not to try to publish it.

At the other end of the scale, it annoys me when people dismiss "difficult" or experimental authors as "I don't understand this therefore it sucks." Sure, because you're the ultimate judge of such things...

no one will notice that I changed this
MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
DoktorvonEurotrash Lex et Veritas from Not a place of honour (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#15: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:24:34 PM

@9: I wrote fantasy novels when I was fifteen, but my parents weren't publishers.

Chaosjunction Since: Feb, 2010
#16: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:42:28 PM

Definitely the Inheritance Trilogy. It's not the greatest thing ever, but I personally found to be a good book. Most of the dislike about it, isn't even about the flaws that it has. Honestly, if I hear about Sloan and the Ra'Zac again...

wuggles (4 Score & 7 Years Ago)
#17: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:55:21 PM

I agree about Twilight, I read it and I honestly thought it was meh. I would say that YA books in general get a lot of hate, I mean I've heard people say basically that they're all romance novels with whiny protagonists, but that's really not true.

MrAHR Ahr river from ಠ_ಠ Since: Oct, 2010 Relationship Status: A cockroach, nothing can kill it.
Ahr river
#18: Mar 8th 2012 at 1:56:50 PM

Well, keep in mind that hype is usually a deciding cause in those things. The same with overloved literature. Mainstream things tend to attract a lot of one or the other, and you're always going to get people who react violently when they don't match up.

Read my stories!
Yuanchosaan antic disposition from Australia Since: Jan, 2010
antic disposition
#19: Mar 8th 2012 at 2:16:14 PM

The first few books of Discworld. Many people seem to feel that they're a fair bit worse than the later novels, but I think it's largely a difference in tone that doesn't affect the quality overly much. The Colour of Magic was the first Discworld book I read, and obviously I liked it enough to continue reading the series. It's hilarious, but a lot more specific in its parody and very light-hearted compared to some of the later books. If nothing else, it puts the rest of the series into perspective, when you consider the elements that were there from the start, and how Discworld has evolved. On a side note, Mort, which is the fourth novel, is one of my favourites.

Waiting for Godot is stereotyped as a completely nonsensical, utterly boring piece of pretentious post-modernist theatre. It's actually quite funny and can provoke fascinating discussions. There's a surprising amount of sense in the play - so long as you're not looking for the usual plot sense. The one label you could still stick on it is pretentious Absurdist theatre.

My examples aren't really about "overhated literature", but "hate" is too strong a word for most books. Really, I'm just trying to interject some examples that aren't part of the tired Dan Brown/Twilight/Eragon cycle.

"Doctor Who means never having to say you're kidding." - Bocaj
Chaosjunction Since: Feb, 2010
#20: Mar 8th 2012 at 2:20:28 PM

[up]

I wasn't aware there was a large group of people that disliked Waiting for Godot. I always found it pretty interesting myself.

JHM Apparition in the Woods from Niemandswasser Since: Aug, 2010 Relationship Status: Hounds of love are hunting
Apparition in the Woods
#21: Mar 8th 2012 at 2:22:52 PM

In general, 20th-century literature that uses any lyric phrasing, or that trifles even mildly with Purple Prose. Hemingway was a genius, but because of him a generation of literary critics decided that terseness was the only acceptable option for serious prose.

This.

I'll hide your name inside a word and paint your eyes with false perception.
feotakahari Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer from Looking out at the city Since: Sep, 2009
Fuzzy Orange Doomsayer
#23: Mar 8th 2012 at 4:39:26 PM

Can I get away with defending Kevin J Anderson here? At the very least, I thought Hopscotch was an interesting example of how to write a readable story while violating almost every rule of proper narrative organization.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful
SnowyFoxes Drummer Boy from Club Room Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: I know
Drummer Boy
#24: Mar 8th 2012 at 8:29:33 PM

Any book that's assigned for English class will probably be automatically hated.

The Joy Luck Club is one of my all time favorite books and my entire English class bitches about all the "pointless" symbolism. I also really loved To Kill A Mocking Bird, Of Mice And Men, and The House On Mango Street, but because they were assigned and we had to think about them, almost everyone hates them.

The last battle's curtains will open on stage!
Funden u wot m8 from the maintenance tunnels Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: It's complicated
u wot m8
#25: Mar 8th 2012 at 8:53:26 PM

[up]Of Mice and Men was a fantastic novel, and it makes me sad that people hate it merely for the fact that it's required reading.

As a matter of fact, Of Mice and Men was one of the only books to pull a Tearjerker moment from me.


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