Critic comes from a Greek word meaning “judge.”[1] It would appear to follow that the practice of criticism could straightforwardly be defined as the practice of judging. However, when faced with the question of the whys, whats, and hows of criticism,Read more…
High Culture, and Other Completely Arbitrary Things Rich People Have Claimed
If there’s one thing I despise, it’s haughtiness. And also unwashed dishes, seltzer water, and whoever picks the Game of the Year (Witcher 3? Really?).
The Critics: Are They to Teach and Judge?
“For all criticism is based on that equation: KNOWLEDGE + TASTE = MEANINGFUL JUDGMENT. The key word here is meaningful. People who have strong reactions to a work—and most of us do—but don’t possess the wider erudition that can giveRead more…
Culture in the Hands of the Critic
The term criticism has a bad reputation, so much so that high school teachers everywhere remind students about “constructive criticism” before any mutual evaluation occurs in the classroom. However, the phrase constructive criticism is, or should be, redundant. CriticismRead more…
Critical to the Last Drop
What is the role of a critic? This question seems to be ever more popular, usually posed with something of a smirk—Critics? Who needs them?—as the once-strong voices of our critics are sucked deeper and deeper into the noiseRead more…
The Critics: With the Power of Words
1. “[…] an extended use of the adjectival form [cultural] in more specialist and academic languages. And whole fields of knowledge are now described as cultural. If cultural studies and cultural critique led the way here, the fields of culturalRead more…
Criticism in the Amazon Age
“But some of these concerns become moot when you think back to the impulse that lies behind serious criticism: the impulse to analyze, to explain, to teach, to judge meaningfully.”-Mendelsohn “The art critic, however, formalizes and deliberately exemplifies theRead more…
It is impossible to divorce your politics from cultural criticism – paraphrase of Joey Orr at the MCA “No more today than in Manet’s time can aesthetic judgments be anything but contentious. And no more today than in Manet’s timeRead more…
No Time to Care: Cultural Criticism’s Corporate Millennium
The number of professional critics dwindles in the face of the internet’s instantaneous, all-inclusive platform. With amateurs’ impromptu reviews multiplying, the space for complex critical thought becomes smaller and smaller, melting into a wide and shallow sea of quick judgementsRead more…
The Role of a Critic
There is not a simple definition for cultural criticism. Criticism can change depending on the form being criticized, the time period, and of course the person defining it. While some find criticism to be more of a passive form ofRead more…
Where a Critic Self-Aligns
— A cultural critic’s job is inherently more contentious and controversial than most; not only do they have the power to affect consumption of another’s work in a way that can earn critics high levels of resentment, but they alsoRead more…
Do Critics Need Stanchions Too?
“…criticism doesn’t mean delivering petty, ill-tempered Simon Cowell-like put-downs. It doesn’t necessarily mean heaping scorn. It means making fine distinctions. It means talking about ideas, aesthetics and morality as if these things matter (and they do). It’s at base anRead more…
Protected: What Live Sports Can Teach Us About Criticism
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Tales from the Soapbox
“For all criticism is based on that equation: KNOWLEDGE + TASTE = MEANINGFUL JUDGMENT.” – Daniel Mendelsohn, The New Yorker “The art critic, however, formalizes and deliberately exemplifies the role of the spectator who realizes the artist’s work—not by leavingRead more…