Is SPIN really circling the drain?

A music critic could easily change my opinion of something I've heard if she points out something I didn't notice about it.

u say btw so matter-of-factly but i think most critics would contest that description of what they do xp

That's why there are so many terrible critics out there!

i'm thinking primarily literary critics here

there's actually a whole interesting history of the words "critique/criticize" and how they've apparently over time developed a connotation of qualitative good/bad (especially negative) judgments, whereas before it meant more neutrally analysis or commentary than evaluation

http://chronicle.uchicago.edu/030403/critical-inquiry1.jpg

Criticism, by its very nature, is about good/bad verdicts btw

couldn't disagree more - criticism is about ways of thinking about art/literature/music - sorting through one's responses - the "verdict" is always the least interesting part afaic

Critique of Pure Reason
by Immanuel Kant

Pure Reason is pretty good, a distinct improvement on last year's Impure Reason. Reliability is obviously much higher and the usage value is off the charts. I expect to be using Pure Reason for many years to come. 9.2

lol

Criticism, by its very nature, is about good/bad verdicts btw

is this for real

hahaha aerosmith plz start that twitter

The verdict is always there, though. Something has to drive the analysis otherwise you are looking at aimless, directionless meandering with no thesis.

I dunno; I read the NY Review of Books & I'm not looking for a "good/bad verdict", I'm looking to learn what the book's like; what're its topics, its way of doing what it does (I'm thinking most of nonfiction but the same's mostly true for fiction too). I'll decide "good/bad" on my own.

hahaha aerosmith plz start that twitter

v. tempted

or not, actually; I rarely read the full books being reviewed there; I just like reading the crit tbh

xp

btw Bandwagonesque 4eva (to keep w/ the thread's topic)

it's possible to have a thesis besides "thumbs up" or "thumbs down" iirc

post one and I will show you how it can be reduced to "thumbs up"/"thumbs down"

Something has to drive the analysis otherwise you are looking at aimless, directionless meandering with no thesis.

lol I am saying this in a friendly way so don't take it wrong but a critical theory class would drive you completely bonkers. the whole point of critical theory is to table verdicts in favor of competing truth-claims & seeing how they work together, what the assumptions that go into them are, etc. what drives the analysis is sort of quasi-scientific: an interest in the workings of things, which are assumed/shown to be very complicated and capable of sustaining multiple readings. However, it is also the case that reading this stuff one picks & prods to figure out whether the author (sorry, "author") is harboring some verdict to which he/she doesn't cop

I had more to say here but I could actually hear the sound of you scratching at your eyeballs to make it stop + it made me feel bad

lol

Agreed re Twitter request.

Aerosmith OTM here. I was going to say, DJP, nobody is saying that criticism doesn't often reduce to a good/bad verdict, what they (and I) say is that it doesn't have to be that way, and there are numerous field where in fact the good/bad duality is almost non-existent.

*fields

whenever someone claims a "reduction" or that X "reduces" to Y, I'm suspicious & recommend the same.

I can attest that writing reviews is more fun than student discussions in lit theory courses.

setting the bar high there

whenever someone claims a "reduction" or that X "reduces" to Y, I'm suspicious & recommend the same.

I feel it's fair to remind the thread here that Euler "does" philosophy and is required by the terms of his contract to suspect all claims of reduction

I studied computer science; reduction is the foundation of everything.

that seems a rather reductive claim to me - Euler, back me up here

i agree w aero too

i wouldnt have said anything except that rarely happens

how many box sets of his tweet reviews did Whiney sell, besides the one to Markers?

iirc he sold all of them

proof that print media can be saved by tweviews, then

fuck, I missed the alley oop due to spending half the day driving across Midwestern tundra

Good grief it's cold, I have been reduced to shivers

important h1pster puppy info within: http://blog.omusicawards.com/2012/01/spin-reviews/

way to work around my "no mentions of h1pster puppies" filter that I spent hours coding

dudes, whiney deserves a raise, people on my facebook talking about spin! in 2012!

antipodean counterclockwise unSpinning out the drain

whiney can u post your handbook on how to write twitter reviews?

1. find some music that you hate

2. cut a hole in the box

lol this is exactly the sort of thread direction that our whiney haaaaaaaates

3. three three for my heartache

4. I can give you more

5. #neversellnocrackwhereyourestat

i hope to see a "thom yorkie" joke in this new column

and all english bands albums done in a mockney style mentioning blood sausage

Oh right http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_Sausage_%28band%29

whiney's theme song

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zfm6ZkDeltM

its whiney's world, the rest of us just live in it!

http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/2012/01/13/145107490/are-140-character-reviews-the-future-of-music-criticism