Love and Criticism -- Thom Donovan I have noticed a lot of interest in criticism—what criticism is, how it should function—at Harriet/Poetry Foundation. And especially interest in the function of ‘negative’ criticism. Throughout the past couple years I have had a few different answers to the question of what criticism does. Or rather, what it can do. Criticism, not unlike poetry Submitted: on 16th Jan 2010 Tags: · The · What · Answers · Criticism · Foundation · Poetry · WhatThe Duty Of Harsh Criticism A little grave reflection shows us that our first duty is to establish a new and abusive school of criticism. There is now no criticism in England. There is merely a chorus of weak cheers, a piping note of appreciation that is not stilled unless a book is suppressed by the police, a mild kindliness that neither heats to enthusiasm nor reverses to anger. via tnr.c... Submitted: on 15th Feb 2010 Tags: · The · Criticism · UnlessParallels between criticism and collecting Strikes me that there is this similarity between literary criticism and book collecting: only by reading an author’s entire oeuvre can a critic authoritatively state which works are the strongest, which the most and which the least successful. Only by knowing the range of prices that are out there in the marketplace can the collector Submitted: 1 day ago Tags: · The · And Book · Author · Criticism · Literary · Literary Criticism · Reading · WorksOMNIVORE: Little time to partake Does arts criticism have a future? Submitted: on 5th Mar 2010 Tags: · CriticismOMNIVORE: The written word Our first duty is to establish a new and abusive school of criticism Submitted: on 22nd Jan 2010 Tags: · The · Criticism · Word · WrittenThe DNB and Dickens #1: Leslie Stephen’s Life in Letters: A Bibliographical Study, by Gillian Fenwick I’m glancing at The Dickens Industry, by Laurence W. Mazzeno. I had a reason to look at this book that I’ve forgotten, though perhaps I had wanted to get a digest of the commentary and criticism of A Christmas Carol. I also might have been curious about the status and story of Dickens’s Submitted: on 23rd Feb 2010 Tags: · Christmas · The · Christmas Carol · Criticism · Forgotten · Letters · Story · Study · WantedE M Delafield I was thinking - it only seems fair that I should share with you some of the fruits of my research, which means that you get the fun bits without having to write huge swathes and have your supervisor ask you to re-write them. Basically, you're getting the fun bit of my doctoral work, without even having to pay university fees. Don't worry, I shan't quote reams of literary criticism ... Submitted: 4 days ago Tags: · The · Criticism · E M Delafield · Literary · Literary Criticism · WriteWriter as magician (Books - The Magicians by Lev Grossman) Lev Grossman's The Magicians might be called the anti-Harry Potter. It is at once a fantasy novel and criticism of the fantasy novel, an entertainment and a tragedy. In reading it, one is diverted but it is not escapist. It might be the love-child of J. K. Rowlings and Herman Hesse. This is the first book in a long while I was compelled to read late into the night until I had finished it. The prot... Submitted: on 17th Jan 2010 Tags: · The · A Fantasy Novel · Criticism · Fantasy · First Book · Harry Potter · Herman Hesse · Into the Night · Lev Grossman · Novel And · Reading · WriterTwo more Best of 2009 lists and associated problems Read two more year-end posts. The first, an expansion of an earlier list posted over at Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, is...well... I guess the word for it is "defensive." While I can understand to some extent why he'd be defensive in his opening comments, with each passing year in his Hotties posts, he has come across to me as taking criticism a bit too much to heart in all the wrong ways. Yes, I'm... Submitted: on 27th Dec 2009 Tags: · The · Criticism · Fantasy · I Can · Opening · Passing · WordOn Roth, Houellebecq, and Hedonism Most of the time when I see something about Michel Houellebecq, I sigh deeply, read the first couple paragraphs, and then completely lose interest. He’s always seemed like the kind of writer that would interest me, but most of the criticism concerned with his writing tends to follow the same cliches and make the actual . . . continue reading On Roth, Houellebecq, and Hedonism Submitted: on 5th Mar 2010 Tags: · The · When · Always · Criticism · Michel Houellebecq · Reading · When · Writer · Writing
