Better Living Through Criticism is not a how-to manual for aspiring critics, but something much better: an intelligent, lively defense of criticism itself and, thereby, a backdoor argument for bringing both one's intellect and gut to bear on one's experience of art. Which is simply to say that Scott wants us to act like humans—not merely brains on sticks, not only bundles of emotions—when we encounter the things that other people create.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
For the defense …
… The Critic's Job and Why It Matters | Books and Culture. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
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A. O. Scott, Critic Without a Cause: The New York Times film writer has a take on everything but says nothing, by LEON WIESELTIER.
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the distinction between critics and reviewers; perhaps we now have too many of the latter and not enough of the former (at least most readers read reviews rather than criticism).
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