The Overrated thread
 

By who?

I agree with On TheRoad and My name is Scientologist.

(the internet, not Sesame Street, obviously).

"no is no, Miley."

Nonsense.

If someone were to ask me, I would tell them that I believe thinking in terms of overrated/underrated says more about one's own manifest antisociality than anything about the subject of which they are appraising.

Possibly, but with the exception of The Merchant of Venice, I think his works are just passable. Most people forget that there are other writers before the 1800s.

O my gawd, Becky, like the Jonas Brothers are waaaay overrated fer sure

Saying Shakespeare is overrated is one thing but to consider everything he wrote besides The Merchant of Venice as merely 'passable'?

Maybe it's a product of having Shakespeare touted as the savior and prophet of all English language writers for the last 6-8 years. I've read some of the Sonnets, R&J, The Tempest, and Macbeth too. And I prefer Marlowe's Faustus over them all.

By who?

I ask this question because they (the rhetorical majority) are hidden to disguise your rebellion as being anything more than against your school, or friends, or the printed media, or whatever social group you seek to set yourself apart from. I can say anything is overrated in comparison to anyone that enjoys that thing more than I as I surely can play the overrater to anyone else by enjoying anything. Majority isn't even required as it can be the majority of a minority such as critics or teachers. In this way, you provide their authority but then seek to challenge it. Why do you value their "rating" in the first place to find it over?

I've read Romeo + Juliet, which was garbage, although I heard Macbeth is amazing

I'm disappointed nobody is telling me to put a sock in my contrary mouth. I'll take the lesson as given.

The internet is full of people trying to make minute points in the face of massive, overwhelming evidence to the contrary, I shouldn't worry that no-one could be arsed to reply. Until now!

Shakespeare is a hair's breadth away from being the prima facie examplar of all English literature, there's no way he's not a wee smidge overrated. That's not to say he's not good, of course, but he's almost unassailably massive.

I agree with the Godard stuff. Boring as hell. I don't see where the revolution is/was there. And that's from a French cinephile....

Can someone please inform me why they don't like Bill Hicks? Because I love him.

We are of course at liberty to ignore the status something is given by a vocal minority, but what then tends to happen is that the person who chooses to questions the 'fact' that, for example, 'The Sopranos is one of the greatest television shows ever produced', is forced to validate their claim far more than those who's views seem to correspond with the minority that have elevated it to such a status.

People are therefore often forced into a position where they feel obliged to justify their dislike of (or lack of enthusiasm for) say, Bill Hicks (in my case) or Shakespeare (in the case of Sonic Youth 37) far more than the person who thinks they're great - who rarely if ever feels obliged to give actual reasons for their enthusiasm.

Maybe Bill Hicks is great and I've been missing something. However merely receiving "I love him" style affirmations of his supposed 'greatness' hardly points to what it might be that actually makes him so great in the first place.