Christgau, Chusid, or DeRogatis: Which critic is the most useless?

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No, I honestly believe that anyone who carries the conviction that their criticism of a piece in whose creation they played absolutely no part is of any consequence at all is wholly delusional. Criticism exists as mere food for thought for the reader, nothing more. Society would not dissolve into a cultural morass without it.

Cynthia Ozick wrote an article in this month's issue of Harpers called "Literary Entrails: They boys in the alley, the disappearing readers, and the novel's ghostly twin" about the place of criticism in art. Reducing her argument to a few sentences, she argues that what gives culture (particularly literary culture) context is criticism. She is, of course, a writer who knows a couple things about criticism and literature. I think she'd probably disagree with your entire assumption.

Mordechai Shinefield, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 00:34 (seventeen years ago) link

I honestly believe that anyone who carries the conviction that their criticism of a piece in whose creation they played absolutely no part is of any consequence at all is wholly delusional. Criticism exists as mere food for thought for the reader, nothing more.

I.e., food for thought is of no consequence.

I.e., thought is of no consequence.

I.e., if you really believed this, you'd have shot yourself in the face long ago.

nabisco, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 01:28 (seventeen years ago) link

syllogistic nabisco otm

James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 01:34 (seventeen years ago) link

Although I guess that's not a syllogism.

James Redd and the Blecchs, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 01:50 (seventeen years ago) link

My mind hungers for the misguided opinions of others.

M.V., Wednesday, 28 March 2007 02:13 (seventeen years ago) link

God Bless You, g®▲Ðұ.

m0stlyClean, Wednesday, 28 March 2007 02:37 (seventeen years ago) link

five years pass...

I await your perspectives.

buzza, Sunday, 23 December 2012 08:48 (eleven years ago) link

5 Years Pass...

maura, Sunday, 23 December 2012 20:44 (eleven years ago) link

Meanwhile, I'm still thinking

Rumba de Schmillsson (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 23 December 2012 22:42 (eleven years ago) link

I like Chusid, if only for highlighting worthy way-out-in-left-field artists and bands

Lee626, Sunday, 23 December 2012 22:52 (eleven years ago) link


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