“A Critic’s Manifesto”
Summarize: The overall drama of critics involves expertise and taste. These writers above all are similar to teachers, and like all good teachers they teach by example. Knowledge was a crucial component in the drama of criticism. The glimpses these writers gave you of their tastes and passions revealed what art and culture are supposed to do for a person. By dramatizing their own thinking on the page, by revealing the basis of their judgments and letting you glimpse the mechanisms by which they exercised their own personal taste, all these critics were implying that you could arrive at your own, quite different judgments. What you really can learn from a critic is how to think. For all criticism is based on that equation: knowledge + taste = meaningful judgment.
Evaluate: I agree on what was said about critics in this article, they’re very wise and knowledgeable on what they critique and have such strong passions for what they do and how they do it. Critics may seem like mean, angry people sometimes but really they’re so invested in what they do and have such strong tastes. Critics truly do teach you how to think critically and that not everything in life is perfect and people need judgement to improve.
“It’s Tartt – But Is It Art?”
Summarize: “Its tone, language, and story belong in children’s literature,” wrote critic James Wood, in The New Yorker. “Nowadays, even The New York Times Book Review is afraid to say when a popular book is crap,” Stein says. No novel gets uniformly enthusiastic reviews, but the polarized responses to The Goldfinch lead to the long-debated questions: What makes a work literature, and who gets to decide? From the beginning Tartt’s work confuserd critics and often they left horrible reviews.
Evaluate: I have not read the authors novel(s) but I agree with what the writer is saying about how a novel is considered bad and who gets to decide it is bad. Who gets to decide a work is considered good literature? I believe every book is not horrible and that every author should get a chance before they’re faced with hard critics. On the other hand, if Tartt has had amazing books it doesn’t mean they’re always going to have great reads that appeal to everyone.
Response to the Critic
My connection and extension:
I will be writing my own response piece to the role of the critic from this article:
(The Shame of the #MeToo Men)
In my opinion, this article is very disrespectful, crazy and wrong in so many ways. The Me Too movement is the upcoming, powerful movement against sexual harassment and sexual assault, especially in the workplace. Many woman have came out and said ‘Me Too’ as in they have also been sexually harassed. I realize that some woman have also came out and falsely accused men of sexual assault when they in fact had not done anything which, yes, obviously is wrong but that is not what was mentioned in the article. What was mentioned is how the writer feels bad for the ‘less powerful’ ‘less overtly predatory’ men being accused. Just because they’re not well known men or don’t seem like predators does not mean they could not have committed sexual assault! Anyone can do such a horrible act and they don’t need to have fame or money to do so. The writer of the article also mentions that the men “whose gross behavior was tacitly accepted by those around them until, suddenly, it wasn’t. I can only imagine how disorienting it must be to have the rules change on you so fast, to have your reputation obliterated in an instant, to be suddenly unable to do the work that gives you your identity.” Their behaviour should never have been accepted by anyone around them, that is what makes this statement even worse. These men deserve punishment and they deserve more than just losing some friends and a job! Imagine feeling bad for a rapist for losing their job and being disoriented by the lifestyle changes that come with committing such a horrible act. Terrible.
The 'M' Word 