# Things that are considered "classics" but which you think are highly overrated **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 5, 2007, 10:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276 "2007-11-05T10:51:06Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 7
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/121 "2007-11-06T21:00:08Z")
FTR, I have exactly the same gripe about Harry Potter as I do about the Disney movies. No character has no real motive for anything they do. They’re just bundles of pure good or pure evil. And Daniel Radcliffe can’t act his way out of a paper bag, nor is he convincing anyone that he can play a 13-year-old boy. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/122 "2007-11-06T21:02:50Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] I don’t really find Sarah Silverman funny, but I do think she’s hot. [/QUOTE] Not that I should necessarily be one to criticize, but I’ve always been more of a face guy, and there’s something about her elongated mug that puts me off. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/123 "2007-11-06T21:27:23Z")
[QUOTE=Malthus] But the Iliad _is_ way overrated. 😃 [/QUOTE] That’s it! Where’s my olive oil? Marc ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/124 "2007-11-06T21:31:16Z")
[QUOTE=ArizonaTeach] There is no doubt in my mind that _Firefly_ is one of the most overrated pieces of art in existence. I’m not saying it’s bad, but I am constantly floored how it is brought up like some holy grail of perfection on this board **all the time**. [/QUOTE] So far I feel the same way. I’m about three episodes in and I cannot hope but roll my eyes every time I hear the theme song. Jesus Christ, it is completely over the top. I will give you that the writing is decent and that the episodes are densely packed, with a standard episode resolving sub-plots multiple times that might take up a few episodes of another sci-fi show. I also like the space effects not having wooshing/flying/air noises. It’s entertaining. On the flip side, the cowboy thing is so over the top that it makes me want to scream. Also, the characters are essentially archetypes and are, for the most part, **boring**. The Han-Solo captain, Animal Mother from Full Metal Jacket reprising his role, the hooker with the heart of gold, the naive man of faith, the tough-as-nails female officer slash token person of color … and so on. A dirty sci-fi adventure is fine but the “talking like cowboys” and the fiddle music is just irritating. I’m expecting the next episode to include either people screaming “Yee Haw!” or the word “dogies” or a new character named Cookie to whip up a batch of spicy chili. It’s enjoyable and all, and probably is one of the better sci-fi shows, but the tone of “I’d cut off any three appendages for another season!” doesn’t really seem on par for the quality of the show. At least so far. Some movies to add to the list: **Citizen Kane**. Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I hadn’t known the ending. **Dune** : So boring! I had to watch it in three sittings, and if I had to choose between watching it again or stabbing a needle in my eye, I’d have to seriously consider. And I’m a total geek, too! Also, anime is overrated. Yes, there is awesome stuff out there that I just love (Miyazaki films, for example), but a lot of what nerdy guys watch is crap aimed at little Japanese schoolgirls. Just because it is Japanese does not make it good. Also, Dragonball Z sucks worse than the Power Rangers. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/125 "2007-11-06T21:45:36Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] **Dune** : So boring! I had to watch it in three sittings, and if I had to choose between watching it again or stabbing a needle in my eye, I’d have to seriously consider. And I’m a total geek, too! [/QUOTE] You do realise that the film is considered so bad by fans of the book that its only use is to scrape aborted fetuses off the clinic floor to throw them in the bin, don’t you? Hell, the director of the film tried to take his name off it! ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/126 "2007-11-06T21:48:31Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] On the flip side, the cowboy thing is so over the top that it makes me want to scream. Also, the characters are essentially archetypes and are, for the most part, **boring**. The Han-Solo captain, Animal Mother from Full Metal Jacket reprising his role, the hooker with the heart of gold, the naive man of faith, the tough-as-nails female officer slash token person of color … and so on. [/QUOTE] And you’ve left out the Mystical Old Black Man. I liked Firefly but hah, you’re right about those archetypes. And I hated the word “gorram.” I wish they would have just said “goddamn.” ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/127 "2007-11-06T21:49:23Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] the naive man of faith, the tough-as-nails female officer slash token person of color [/QUOTE] The “naive” man of faith’s obviously anything but when you watch a few more episodes and is black as well. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/128 "2007-11-06T21:55:34Z")
> [@](#): > > Hell, the director of the film tried to take his name off it! Nitpick: David Lynch didn’t try to take his name off the film (although I notice he doesn’t include it on lists of his works, and neither do people who are trying to be nice to him). He DID take his name off the editied-for-TV version, since it messed with what he had done and included things he _hadn’t_ himself filmed (along with some stuff that he did, and which ended up cut). The TV version lists the perennial pseudonym **Alan Smithee** as the director. Having said which, I have to admit that I like quite a bit of Lynch’s Dune. I like it better than the SciFi channel version. I even like the “Alan Smithee” TV version. It was put together by other hands, but it was done by someone who knew and loved the book, and wasn’t an outright hack. But Pepper Mill’s comment on it is wholly appropriate – “It looks like a book with more than half the chapters missing.” ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/129 "2007-11-06T22:00:51Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] So far I feel the same way. I’m about three episodes in and I cannot hope but roll my eyes every time I hear the theme song. Jesus Christ, it is completely over the top. [/QUOTE] What, you didn’t think it was shiny? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/130 "2007-11-06T22:04:12Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] And you’ve left out the Mystical Old Black Man. [/QUOTE] Who? > [@CalMeacham](#): > > But Pepper Mill’s comment on it is wholly appropriate – “It looks like a book with more than half the chapters missing.” I’ve always said it feels like a two hour trailer for a sixteen hour movie. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/131 "2007-11-06T22:06:25Z")
[QUOTE=Aesiron] The “naive” man of faith’s obviously anything but when you watch a few more episodes and is black as well. [/QUOTE] So he doesn’t turn out to be a glorified Friar Tuck, who sees the inherent good in the criminals around him and guides them with easily palatable, vaguely spiritual one-liners? I can only hope. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/132 "2007-11-06T22:07:15Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Who? [/QUOTE] Book. ---
**Author:** ![Illuminatiprimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/illuminatiprimus/32/11520_2.png) [@Illuminatiprimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Illuminatiprimus)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/133 "2007-11-06T22:08:18Z")
[QUOTE=fluiddruid] So he doesn’t turn out to be a glorified Friar Tuck, who sees the inherent good in the criminals around him and guides them with easily palatable, vaguely spiritual one-liners? I can only hope. 🙂 [/QUOTE] Nope, he proceeds to do nothing except allude to a backstory that we never see - which is probably just as well because its doubtful it would be anything close to as interesting to what the writers kept hyping it up to be. I liked Firefly but “Shephard” Book was just a waste of oxygen in my view. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/134 "2007-11-06T22:10:52Z")
[QUOTE=Argent Towers] Book. [/QUOTE] Book is mystical? How so? ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/135 "2007-11-06T22:11:17Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] You do realise that the film is considered so bad by fans of the book that its only use is to scrape aborted fetuses off the clinic floor to throw them in the bin, don’t you? Hell, the director of the film tried to take his name off it! [/QUOTE] All I know is that people recommended it to me highly and it got taken to DVD instead of burned in a fire. Both make them extremely overrated. It’s one of the worst films I’ve ever seen and I even found “Monster-in-Law”, while cringeworthy, MORE entertaining. And shorter! ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/136 "2007-11-06T22:12:59Z")
[QUOTE=Illuminatiprimus] Nope, he proceeds to do nothing except allude to a backstory that we never see - which is probably just as well because its doubtful it would be anything close to as interesting to what the writers kept hyping it up to be. I liked Firefly but “Shephard” Book was just a waste of oxygen in my view. [/QUOTE] This doesn’t really override my “overrated” premise. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/137 "2007-11-06T22:13:19Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] Book is mystical? How so? [/QUOTE] I mean he’s mystical in that he’s a religious figure. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/138 "2007-11-06T22:15:19Z")
Thomas Wolfe (_Look Homeward Angel_, not _The Right Stuff_ author) is a writer that I would like to like but I can’t. The reason I’d like to is that I love some of his quotes and the way he turns a phrase: > [@](#): > > Each of us is all the sums he has not counted: subtract us into nakedness and night again, and you shall see begin in Crete four thousand years ago the love that ended yesterday in Texas. . . . The seed of our destruction will blossom in the desert, the alexin of our cure grows by a mountain rock, and our lives are haunted by a Georgia slattern, because a London cutpurse went unhung. Each moment is the fruit of forty thousand years. The minute-winning days, like flies, buzz home to death, and every moment is a window on all time. I think his storylines and characters are interesting, he writes about a time and social class and place I find interesting, but I simply cannot make it through his books. I’m accused by some of being an excessively wordy writer, but to quote Willie Brown I “ain’t the beginnings of a pimple on the late great [Thomas Wolfe’s] ass” when it comes to padding word count. From the quote above it would take him longer to tell the story of that Georgian slattern than it did for her to grow from cradle to whorehouse. (I’ve read that he had legendary fights with his good friend and editor who he sometimes accused of butchering his babies- makes you wonder how long the damned books were originally.) And another vote for _Tolkien_. I have tried, I have read the books (as much as I could), I have listened to them on audio thinking it would help, I have watched the movies- just can’t get into him, and ditto for his friend C.S. Lewis. I read _Lion Witch and the Wardrobe_ in junior high when I was a devout Christian and even then I thought Santa was the silliest thing he could have added and the symbolism was as subtle as a screaming whore. _Moby Dick_- another classic I’d love to like but honestly don’t. Again, some of my favorite passages in American lit, but the whole doesn’t work as well for me. ---
**Author:** ![Free\_Range\_Otter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ba8739/32.png) [@Free\_Range\_Otter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Free_Range_Otter)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/139 "2007-11-06T22:18:22Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] For me, I get all 😕 with the praise of Jack Keroac’s _On the Road_. Even in my somewhat vagabond searching-for-myself days, that book was a boring piece of crap. [/QUOTE] This is what I came to post. I mean, seriously, _On the Road_? What an awful, awful book. I was so excited to read that book after hearing so many good things, and finished it feeling like Jack Kerouac had just masturbated all over me. Gross. Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. (Now who’s going to bring up William Faulkner? 😉 ) ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [November 6, 2007, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276/140 "2007-11-06T22:24:36Z")
I’m with you on Tom Wolfe. Bonfire of the Vanities–I can’t get past about page 10. Never have–and I read all of Ayn Rand’s stuff AND Dickens–I know from wordy, superfulous prose. Don’t see his genius, and if he’s the poser who always wears a white suit, he needs to cut that Colonel Sanders shit out right now. I see from Wikipedia that he is. \ Jazz. Waaaay overrated. As is opera. As is ballet and modern dance. So there. 😛 Indie rock/emo stuff is too. And Sarah Silverman looks like a weasel to me. Blech. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276.md?page=6) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-that-are-considered-classics-but-which-you-think-are-highly-overrated/425276.md?page=8)