Excellent! You made my day. I agree with your assessment, even though I didn't really read (almost) any of the writers you mention--aside from some excerpts and a couple of poems by Maya Angelou (the latter utterly embarrassing). I don't like reading overly popular, overrated writers. I prefer to discover the writers I read.
Is it Toni Morrison? Surely they’ve not entirely overrated but a selection of talented writers whose work is a mixed bag of achievement? That seems typical. I agree with the list however the publishing machine has to churn out hype to make the sales.
Yes. In fact, just the other day, totally by coincidence, I happened on an excerpt from some essay she wrote. The essay had gotten hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon (this, in recent, post George Floyd years), people talking about it as if it were something brilliant, when, in effect, it was only cliches. For example, she was denouncing “fascist” “state-sponsored” artists and writers, and I felt like laughing. Aside from the fact that in America, the state barely sponsors any kind of artistic endeavors, let’s see who are the artists and writers sponsored by the NEA, the only state institution who gives them money. They are all “progressives.” No one even remotely conservative can get a state-sponsored grant in America. The fact is that she was parroting a social critique that used to have some validity in Europe (where the state does sponsor artists and writers) and even there from decades ago. Now it is unlikely any right-wing artist, never mind “fascist,” is state-sponsored. A small-mind who has gotten famous only because she happens to be of a certain race in a country full of guilt-driven puritans.
Quite so. Having said that, her fiction isn't bad. Beloved, for instance. But she came along with the right message at the right time, without question.
Excellent! You made my day. I agree with your assessment, even though I didn't really read (almost) any of the writers you mention--aside from some excerpts and a couple of poems by Maya Angelou (the latter utterly embarrassing). I don't like reading overly popular, overrated writers. I prefer to discover the writers I read.
Good idea! And thanks, Alta.
Viet Thanh Nguyen
I've heard that from a friend whose judgement I trust, but I haven't read him.
Is it Toni Morrison? Surely they’ve not entirely overrated but a selection of talented writers whose work is a mixed bag of achievement? That seems typical. I agree with the list however the publishing machine has to churn out hype to make the sales.
Yes, Morrison. As you say, most are mixed bag. Morrison is a pretty good writer, just not the genius she was trumpeted as, in my view.
reveal, please.
Saint Toni Morrison.
never heard of her
You are outing yourself as a non-U, Paul!
The Nobel Prize winner we need to guess: hmm, I don't know. You made me curious. What year and what nationality?
American, 1993. You know her, I bet.
Yes. In fact, just the other day, totally by coincidence, I happened on an excerpt from some essay she wrote. The essay had gotten hundreds of positive reviews on Amazon (this, in recent, post George Floyd years), people talking about it as if it were something brilliant, when, in effect, it was only cliches. For example, she was denouncing “fascist” “state-sponsored” artists and writers, and I felt like laughing. Aside from the fact that in America, the state barely sponsors any kind of artistic endeavors, let’s see who are the artists and writers sponsored by the NEA, the only state institution who gives them money. They are all “progressives.” No one even remotely conservative can get a state-sponsored grant in America. The fact is that she was parroting a social critique that used to have some validity in Europe (where the state does sponsor artists and writers) and even there from decades ago. Now it is unlikely any right-wing artist, never mind “fascist,” is state-sponsored. A small-mind who has gotten famous only because she happens to be of a certain race in a country full of guilt-driven puritans.
Quite so. Having said that, her fiction isn't bad. Beloved, for instance. But she came along with the right message at the right time, without question.
Yes, Beloved is still on my reading list.