MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Book Reviews: Populism vs. Edification/Initiation

fjtorres · 05-24-2012, 09:41 AM

(I'll answer to most anything. Even, "Hey you!"

And I'm not saying there isn't a place for reviews, or more to your point: Criticism.
Rather I'm saying that the two are no longer tied together: reviews are a consumer function and criticism is a scholarly/educational function. Relying on criticism simply isn't a viably reliable way to find good reads anymore.

Critical analysis should be selling *itself* on its merits rather than as a consumer tool.
Maybe moving online as movie critics have done to great success.
Roger Ebert thinks this is a golden age for movie critics:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010...ie_critic.html

Literary critics ought to market their output strictly as a product unto itself instead of an adjunct or guide to a market they simply can't track anymore. Their best essays tend to be independent of the merits of what they review anyway.

I'm coming at this from the "fit the tool to the task" or "...to the audience".
The days of one-size fits all practices in the industry are long past and trying to apply the tols/practices of one segment to the rest will not be satisfactory to anybody.

Publishing from here on out is going to be a collection of niches appealing to different audiences. Or to put it another--probably offensive to some--way: literary fiction is just another genre.

So is literary criticism.

05-24-2012, 09:41 AM	#6
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	(I'll answer to most anything. Even, "Hey you!" And I'm not saying there isn't a place for reviews, or more to your point: Criticism. Rather I'm saying that the two are no longer tied together: reviews are a consumer function and criticism is a scholarly/educational function. Relying on criticism simply isn't a viably reliable way to find good reads anymore. Critical analysis should be selling itself on its merits rather than as a consumer tool. Maybe moving online as movie critics have done to great success. Roger Ebert thinks this is a golden age for movie critics: http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010...ie_critic.html Literary critics ought to market their output strictly as a product unto itself instead of an adjunct or guide to a market they simply can't track anymore. Their best essays tend to be independent of the merits of what they review anyway. I'm coming at this from the "fit the tool to the task" or "...to the audience". The days of one-size fits all practices in the industry are long past and trying to apply the tols/practices of one segment to the rest will not be satisfactory to anybody. Publishing from here on out is going to be a collection of niches appealing to different audiences. Or to put it another--probably offensive to some--way: literary fiction is just another genre. So is literary criticism. Last edited by fjtorres; 05-24-2012 at 09:58 AM.