[HN Gopher] The Art of the Critic
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The Art of the Critic
Author : benbreen
Score : 45 points
Date : 2025-05-29 05:55 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (www.metropolitanreview.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.metropolitanreview.org)
| billfruit wrote:
| At one time, reading Henry James(and a few others) was considered
| one of the pleasures of being an Adult. Perhaps because he so
| analysed people and their actions in a complex worldly-wise
| manner. Perhaps in a manner in which one would analyze one's own
| life.
|
| People making life choices makes for the most riveting novels.
|
| I'm guessing he's not that popular presently.
| cafard wrote:
| Considering the disappointing sales of the New York Edition, I
| wonder whether he was ever that popular.
|
| I find the earlier work much more readable than the later. John
| Lukacs quotes somebody's quip about James's manners: James the
| First, James the Second, the Old Pretender.
| nyeah wrote:
| Alternate explanation: Dickens was pretty good but sometimes a
| critic, even Henry James, is just someone who doesn't like stuff.
|
| IANAEM, I am not an English major.
| hresvelgr wrote:
| While I believe there is scant value in being a critic, a good
| point is nevertheless made: it should be made by practicing
| artists.
|
| Elaborating on both points, as a practicing artist, paying
| attention to what you like is important as it shapes your tastes.
| Critique is useful only insofar as it allows one to create more
| of what perfectly embodies one's taste, whatever that may be. To
| be a public critic is to believe one's taste is superior. In my
| opinion, the only important taste is one's own to one, and should
| be cultivated by unabashedly following what you find intriguing.
|
| If you're not a practicing artist, like what you like earnestly.
| Plenty will bemoan the state of the art crumbling, but there's a
| reason people still enjoy the greats of old to this day. What's
| good will persist.
| pickleglitch wrote:
| I think this is a myopic view of critique. A good critic helps
| potential consumers gauge the likelihood they will or won't
| enjoy a given work, and offers insights that facilitate a
| deeper engagement with the material. Of course one's own taste
| is the final arbiter of enjoyment, and of course every critic's
| own taste is going to flavor their criticism, but that doesn't
| mean they must believe their own tastes are superior, or that
| non-critics should take their views as objective facts, or that
| the whole enterprise serves no purpose for anyone other than
| practicing artists.
|
| For example, if I watch a movie and don't understand it I could
| shrug it off and forget about it and there would be nothing
| wrong with that. But I could also go read critiques of the film
| and maybe gain an understanding which makes my interaction with
| the film more enriching, even if it doesn't necessarily change
| my overall opinion.
|
| I think it's true that critique can never be as valuable as the
| work it examines, but art only becomes part of culture when it
| is discussed by the culture. That is what critics are doing.
| ahalbert4 wrote:
| Vladimir Nabokov's opinions on various writers, culled from
| Strong Opinions. (http://wmjas.wikidot.com/nabokov-s-
| recommendations)
|
| * James, Henry. Dislike him rather intensely, but now and then
| his wording causes a kind of electric tingle. Certainly not a
| genius.
| miiiiiike wrote:
| I've worked with professional [0] critics.
|
| They're constantly workshopping their bad opinions. And, if you
| try to straighten them out on a subject I can almost guarantee
| that your words and arguments, the ones that they'll dismiss or
| ridicule (usually verbosely) in the moment, are going to appear
| on the page under their byline. Typically expressed in tone that
| makes the reader feel lucky that they have decided to share their
| holy knowledge with mere mortals.
|
| Is what you're talking about in their field? No? Well they're
| going to use the same tone and rhetorical tactics to talk about
| the things they know nothing about.
|
| Demonstrate that they're wrong in a way that's not useful to
| them? Well, you've just made an enemy for life. Hope you like
| receiving 9,000 word emails that could have been boiled down to
| "How dare you tell me that I'm not perfect?" Why use 9 words when
| you can use 9,000? Not getting the point? No worries, they'll tag
| in three of their friends.
|
| As a class, they were poorly paid people, personal lives in
| tatters, with little knowledge or experience of the world, all
| crawling over eachother to be see as the "thought leader". The
| one who gets to tell everyone how the world is to be run.
|
| To be famous.
|
| The kind of people who, if you were stuck on a snowy mountain,
| would burn down the shelter you're building (too slowly in their
| opinion), complain that it's too hot, and the when the fire goes
| out, attack you for letting it get so cold. "What happened to
| that shelter you were building? It burned down? Well, how could
| you let that happen?"
|
| Don't even get me started on the lies and excuses (never.
| ending.) While still maintaining a public reputation for "honesty
| and transparency". It doesn't matter if it's true as long as you
| keep saying it.
|
| Ended up getting lawyers involved and maneuvered them into
| putting every stupid thing that they did in writing before
| walking away. They're still doing the same kind of stuff at about
| the same level that were doing it 10-12 years ago. Self-limiting.
| It's not even worth attacking them publicly, there's nothing that
| I could do to them that they aren't already doing to themselves.
|
| Learned a few things from the experience:
|
| -1: If you have something to communicate, communicate it
| yourself. Never allow anyone communicate an important message for
| you unless you're standing right behind them.
|
| 0. Don't try to help people if you need help yourself.
|
| 1. Work with people who want to be known for what they do, rather
| than what they say.
|
| 2. Selfishness and myopia have no floor. You can set the bar for
| success as low as possible and some people will still find a way
| to blame you when they trip over it.
|
| 3. End quickly. If someone acts in bad faith even once, it's
| over.
|
| [0]: Professional meaning that someone, somewhere, paid them
| something for their opinion. Not to be confused with professional
| conduct.
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