 Now there's a segment of these chats you may have heard of it. It's called overrated or underrated So I'm going to call out a few names books whatever you're free to decline If you don't want to offend anyone or other reasons that will try just a few and you tell us Overrated or underrated JK Rowling as a writer. I feel perhaps overrated But as a cultural phenomenon, I think perfectly fine I mean, it's hard to say underrated because she is sort of the Naples Ultra of children's writing so Goethe overrated or underrated Especially in English absolutely underrated Goethe is a far more significant author than anybody here seems to realize and the TLS just has a review of a new Princeton anthology of the essential Goethe a thousand pages and You know that's that's you can't you can't stuff him into a thousand pages because there's so much there and so much variety To which is also one of the astonishing things He's you know the greatest poet of the times the greatest dramatist of his times and he was a Astounding novelist as well as scientists a good scientist. Yes. Yes, and the conversations with a command and son You know you have all these different things which are just just superior literature. So in English She's vastly under it in Germany. I think they get it On kill a miracle underrated or overrated. I Actually have not ever read anything about No, not as a writer as a political leader Again it probably depends where I Admire her. I think among the political leaders currently operating in Europe and especially since we're speaking shortly after the whole brexit vote and the Turnover that happened and I think she's Probably underrated Herman Melville Probably also underrated I I We're agreeing on all these so far if you're curious All right Yeah, I think people don't Also range far enough with Melville I always I always when the argument of the great American novel comes up I always make a plug for the confidence man, which I think is sort of representative It's says so much about America But I think that that would be my choice for the the great American novel And especially from Belleville But yeah, I think he's also underrated Thomas Bernhardt Um Well, he's very fashionable, but also I don't think he can be underrated I'm I'm also complete completely behind him. I think he was a remarkable author I've always enjoyed even though there's a droning similarity to much of his bitter ranting It completely wins me over and I don't think I've been disappointed by any any banhut But kinshine's nephew is my favorite and then the loser Yeah, but all of them I think are fantastic. Yeah first for me very underrated another Austrian Friedrich A. Hayek the economist Again, you're free to pass Yeah, I well He's he's I perhaps don't like what he his arguments are always employed for I mean currently he's obviously a very Popular economist to rely on And I think it gets a dangerous with you know the interpretation of the philosophy So I'm a bit more leery of too much enthusiasm for him, but again obviously such a significant figure That's very difficult to underrate him. So for fiction. What would be the country or region now? What's the country? What's a region that's even up for grabs, but That is really under appreciated relative to what it has done So if you say oh classic Russian fiction even if people haven't read it when people know there's a lot there right probably wouldn't pick that So what's the counterintuitive pick for a most underrated region or country for a wonderful fiction under a I would absolutely think The regional language literature of India I think surprisingly even though India is perhaps the main literary English is the main literary language of India and a great deal is locally translated even there much of the vernacular literature still isn't available in English and What one can see of it and also in part here about it? We're missing an awful lot. I mean there. They're really there is a literary culture there Especially for example in Bengali, but we've had that since Tagore and one of the remarkable things is even you know Tagore won his Nobel Prize over a hundred years ago. There's still novels by him, which haven't been translated into English and He sees he's really a very good novelist and it's Yes, truly worthwhile and this goes for many regions of the southern region of Kerala where they write in Malaya Lam Malay Malaya Lam It's this remarkable literary production there and we just see so little of it And so and it's also what is available because a fair amount is It tends to be underappreciated especially in American, you know a kingdom So it hasn't really reached these shores And would you pick any part of the world as overrated for literature in a way? I know you think it's all underrated but in relative terms I Think the American dominance is still too overbearing Worldwide so we agree on this too. I'm happy to hear you say that but go on Yeah, no, I think it just it's it's American literature is too often given a free pass especially abroad Because you know, we're so used to it being so dominant And so I really think if any is overrated it is American fiction Most of it bores me and like one of my pieces of advice for people going to a bookstore I would just say don't buy an American novel all other things equal Yeah, because they're fairly likely to do so they're more likely to have heard of it without any kind of bias necessarily operating Just refuse to buy American novels for a year. I think it's good piece