Great masterpieces... that suck!

[DN83]

Red Badge of Courage & Wuthering Heights

 

[Nickolai77]

My main gripe is defiantly Shakespeare. He was a good playwright and a slighter better poet- Overall, a talented writer indeed. However, he certainly does not deserve to be worshipped as some sort of literary idol- he wasn't a perfect writer.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Germany's greatest writer and one of the greatest poets/dramatists/novelists to ever live, did worship Shakespeare as the best playwright in history, a Shaftesburyan alter deus, "second maker after Jove".

I'll take his opinion over yours.

Fair enough, but after studying English Literature right through school and 6th form college, i only think Shakespeare is a good playwright. I'm yet to be convinced he's some sort of literature god. If Goethe thought he was a god, good for him. Like how i disgaree with Marx and Freud, i shall also disagree with Goethe, even if his opinion is authoritative.

 

[Chris^^]

I found the Cistine Chapel to be one of the most overrated thing I've ever seen, I saw no artistic value in it whatsoever, there was simply too much there. I found that true of the whole Vatican in fact, everything was so over the top it just seemed kitch.

 

[Casual Shinji]

Rembrandt.

There's really nothing interesting about his paintings. Sure, there was a lot of skill needed to create it, but the same can be said about the Empire State Building. There's nothing distinct or unique about his work when you compare it to van Gogh, Dali or Esher.

 

[EHKOS]

The Mona Lisa, it's dark, it's boring, it's simple. I agree with whoever said Shakespear, it may have been great in his own time, but right now you can barely read it. It's just too out of touch.

 

[someotherguy]

Also, if we want to get further into games, Okami. Can't stand it.

 

[Falseprophet]

Ayn Rand's Anthem. The whole book is about the superiority of the free individual over the oppressive collective, and yet in the end the main character essentially enslaves his female companion into patriarchy. Thankfully, unlike most of Rand's fiction it can be read in an hour or two.

 

[someotherguy]

Anything by Pink Floyd, the later work of the Beatles, and Radiohead. I know they are geniuses but I think as musicians they fail and produced some truly unlistenable music even if it was deep, meaningful and experimental.

but... but... The Dark Side of the Moon!

is a series of random noises and repetitive sounding slow boring music that never seemed all that special to me. I get that they were being artsy but artsy does not make something fun to hear.
example of fun band
<youtube=GdZn7k5rZLQ>

Try your best to line those up. My thoughts on nightwish.

Also, how are they 'fun'? They seem to be the epitome of seriousness.

 

[repeating integers]

The Police.

Repeating the same words over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again =/= good music. I find it boring and tedious. They have the odd good song, but mostly I just do not like their music.

Oh, and Half-Life 2 was remarkably average for a game held up as the best thing since sliced bread. Better than Halo, even in the singleplayer department? Sorry, I disagree quite a lot there. Come back when your combat isn't so linear and scripted, and your characters and plot actually exist.

That said, Ravenholm terrified the shit out of me and kept me up late the following night. So Valve succeeded there.

 

[Goldeneye103X2]

I hate everything shakespeare-related. I say he's over-rated. Others say "NO HE'S NOT HE'S THE BEST WRITER EVAHHHHHH". I honestly don't mind studying literature at school. Recently, I've read John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men' and that's a very solid well-written book. But reading Shakespeare? Just No. Nothing to learn from him. At all.

 

[Buzz Killington_v1legacy]

[Macbeth]'s also one of his earliest plays, and still pretty good, considering the history behind it.

Not to be a buzzkill again, but it's actually one of his later works--he started writing in the early 1590s, and Macbeth is usually dated to about 1605 or 1606. He stopped writing in 1613, three years or so before his death, and I've got to say it was about time. I'm one of the most rabid Shakespeare fanboys you'll ever find, but his last couple of plays (The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII, written in collaboration with John Fletcher) are really not very good at all.[footnote]Henry VIII is so bad partly because he was writing about the late queen's father, so it's one big sloppy love letter to the Tudors and Elizabeth in particular. The last scene has one of the characters saying about her "This royal infant--heaven still move about her!--though in her cradle, yet now promises
upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, which time shall bring to ripeness". Ick. [/footnote]

 

[Retardinator]

Romeo and Juliet. I'm just mostly pissed people regard it as a "supposed to read story" when it originated as a play. Its also quite sad half of the text had to be translated to make sense in this time.

Actually, my aunt works as a literature professor in a high school and she says Romeo and Juliet is widely regarded as the most boring book written by Shakespeare. (Both by students and teachers alike)

 

[Snarky Username]

Not to be a buzzkill again, but it's actually one of his later works--he started writing in the early 1590s, and Macbeth is usually dated to about 1605 or 1606. He stopped writing in 1613, three years or so before his death, and I've got to say it was about time. I'm one of the most rabid Shakespeare fanboys you'll ever find, but his last couple of plays (The Two Noble Kinsmen and Henry VIII, written in collaboration with John Fletcher) are really not very good at all.[footnote]Henry VIII is so bad partly because he was writing about the late queen's father, so it's one big sloppy love letter to the Tudors and Elizabeth in particular. The last scene has one of the characters saying about her "This royal infant--heaven still move about her!--though in her cradle, yet now promises
upon this land a thousand thousand blessings, which time shall bring to ripeness". Ick. [/footnote][/quote]

Then my teacher lied and she must be punished... But thank you for killing my buzz and correcting me. Knowing is half the battle, after all.

 

[ultimateownage]

2001: A Space Odyssey (the movie)
The first half was really slow and nothing ever happened, and the second half was just bat shit crazy and made no sense.

 

[repeating integers]

I hate everything shakespeare-related. I say he's over-rated. Others say "NO HE'S NOT HE'S THE BEST WRITER EVAHHHHHH". I honestly don't mind studying literature at school. Recently, I've read John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men' and that's a very solid well-written book. But reading Shakespeare? Just No. Nothing to learn from him. At all.

Yeah, and the fact that one's removed about 80 years from your time, and the other about five times as much, has nothing to do with that. That's like saying that you identify more with your friends than with your great-grandparents. Well, DUH.

You are not a yardstick. Your opinion doesn't matter. For 350 years, every playwright learnt most of his craft from Shakespeare. The fact that YOU can't learn anything from him says all about you, and nothing about him. Again, Shakespeare's works aren't BOOKS. They're PLAYS. DO you think that even the best movie scripts compare favourably to novels when they're read? Hell no. You're not supposed to read Shakespeare. Go watch his stuff.

My opinion on this subject is largely neutral, but you seem to be getting very defensive of Shakespeare here. I know their opinion isn't as "important" (for want of a better term) than other writers/playwrights who worshipped him, but can't you at least allow them to voice it?

 

[someotherguy]

I hate everything shakespeare-related. I say he's over-rated. Others say "NO HE'S NOT HE'S THE BEST WRITER EVAHHHHHH". I honestly don't mind studying literature at school. Recently, I've read John Steinbeck's 'Of Mice And Men' and that's a very solid well-written book. But reading Shakespeare? Just No. Nothing to learn from him. At all.

Yeah, and the fact that one's removed about 80 years from your time, and the other about five times as much, has nothing to do with that. That's like saying that you identify more with your friends than with your great-grandparents. Well, DUH.

You are not a yardstick. Your opinion doesn't matter. For 350 years, every playwright learnt most of his craft from Shakespeare. The fact that YOU can't learn anything from him says all about you, and nothing about him.

You seem to be forgetting Shakespeare was a man. Not a god. In this post and others.
His opinion matters, to anyone thats willing to listen. I don't think he's saying no one can learn anything from Shakespeare, he just personally found nothing of value there. IMHO you're not looking at this post with the right scope in mind.