Ask the Writers - Overrated |
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| Written by (Cult)ure Staff |
| Monday, 29 November 2010 00:00 |
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This month we asked our writers, "What was your first brush with the overrated? The first book or movie or single that everyone and their brother told you you HAD to read/see/hear that ended up disappointing you by not living up to the hype?"
My most memorable brush with the overrated was the movie Fight Club. I didn't see it the year it came out, but, man, did people talk about that thing. I have a particular hate-on for plots where the big reveal is "it was a dream," "he is actually dead," or "the reality we presented you with isn't reality, something else is;" for the most part, these are cheap ploys and a lazy way out of an impossible situation that the storyteller has created. When I did finally see Fight Club, I was definitely disappointed. I don't care to see men beat the living shit out of each other, and, other than some nice shots of Mr. Jolie without a shirt on, I didn't find the movie interesting or entertaining. I also got sick of people talking about how they "got" the movie because it was so "deep." Overrated! Agnes Cadieux
The story had an interesting start, yes siree it hooked you right from those first critical pages, but to be honest, once you were far enough in that plot that you either A) decided it was worth going out and buying your own copy; B) began recommending it to others; or C) were caught around town with your nose deep in its pages. Shortly thereafter, it becomes evident that the uppity ADD ramble of thoughts are tiresome and difficult to stay engaged in. At first it was funny, light-hearted, and compelling the way Gilbert wrote exactly how she perceived the world, but try sitting through the same routine over and over again. Three hundred pages of tangents and scattered thoughts veering off course, just to whiplash you back into the main story the moment you think, "What is she getting at here?" It gets old fast. Emily Goodacre
People loooove bacon. They put it on every sandwich, breakfast plate, and wrap appetizers in it. Lately it's become so trendy that bacon cupcakes, lollipops, and even vodka have popped into stores. And don't get me started on "baconnaise" (gag, barf). But I just don't see the appeal. Am I the crazy one? Or is bacon, and the recent hipster-y bacon trend, totally overrated? [Editor's note: Prosciutto is Italian ham, so people should really stop trying to sell Emily on it as a kind of bacon she would enjoy. Also, baconnaise makes everyone barf, doesn't it?] April Yorke
Tags: bacon, barf, books, cinema, culture, deep, eat pray love, food, hate ons, intervention, misheard lyrics are better than the real thing, mr. jolie, overrated, tolkien
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Lauren Cheal
We've all heard someone talk about it or seen the cream-coloured cover sticking out of some trendy oversized purse, but the reality is that Eat, Pray, Love should probably have been named Sigh and Walk Away. The book, which has -- for some bizarre reason -- made it all the way to Hollywood, is really just the inner ramblings of a woman who'd had enough of her life, was lucky enough to get paid to travel the world and write about her search for god (she actually divulged this little gem of information in her earlier chapters), and how she finally found enlightenment and contentment in Italy, India, and Indonesia.
Deep confession time: I really hate bacon. The taste, the smell, the greasy-ness, all of it. Whatever, that's my prerogative, right? Wrong. Because from the time I was but a wee lass people have found this unbelievable. It's been the topic of many a conversation. In fact I recently introduced myself to a colleague's children, who exclaimed, "Oh, you're the one who doesn't like bacon!" It's only a matter of time before I'm subjected to an intervention. They ask me if I've tried this or that: peameal, pancetta, prosciutto. It's all bacon, folks, and it's all not for me.
It wasn't until the end of grade six that reading took as something more than educational, but anyone who's seen my apartment knows that I'm on board now. There have been two books (Margaret Atwood's Alias Grace and Paul Auster's City of Glass) that I've thrown across the room in annoyance when the climax turned out to be incredibly lame. But those aren't the books I would call "overrated." Nope, that title belongs to the first book that defeated me. The first book that, for no reason other than the fact that I took no joy in turning the page, I never finished it: The Hobbit. I read it during a sci-fi/fantasy kick, so it's not like I was unprepared for magical worlds and creatures. I was unprepared, however, for how little of the book (or the half I read) wasn't adventure but walking around, camping out, and singing songs. And man, is that some boring stuff. I've been tempted in the years since to give the books another try or maybe start at the authorial beginning rather than the chronological beginning, largely because I have since learned of Tolkien and C.S. Lewis' great friendship and I love The Chronicles of Narnia. But then I remember how little I enjoyed 
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