… Arthur Krystal: The excuses of a mean book critic - The Style Blog - The Washington Post. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
This prompted me to take a look at my review of Guterson's Ed King. It's not nice, but I don't thinking it's self-indulgently nasty.
The problem is that the Devil gets more than his due. I also think of David Denby's book "Snark" which seems relevant to this. It's fine to vent one's literary-existential spleen from time to time, it's also best to be an honest reviewer. Bu Auden was right: too much vitriol too often sours the writer as well as the audience.
ReplyDeleteJust a comment about the ads. Although they are discreet on the blog itself, have you looked at its RSS feed, as I read it? One gets the post title, a range of ads for pretty weird things, then right at the bottom a little line of post. It does look very odd, as if it is just a post of ads. I wondered if you had seen this?
ReplyDeleteArthur Krystal's essay is now available without subscription:
ReplyDeletehttp://chronicle.com/article/Should-Writers-Reply-to/131157/