posted
Looking at criticism on IMDb and the customer section of Amazon, it becomes extremely evident that, at best, only about 25% of these people know what they are doing.
I have had occasion before to bemoan the debasement of criticism as an art form as evidenced in today's newspapers, but amateur critics truly show themselves inferior even to newspaper critics.
The prose is almost never eloquent, and not always coherent. The insights are superficial, the synopses tedious and overlong, etc. I could go on as to the utter mediocrity of the average amateur critic, but I shall not, save to add one important point.
There are far too many one-star and five-star reviews on these sites. Few films or books deserve either, particularly the one-star rating. The worst film I have seen in the past three years, Elizabethtown, I would rate at two stars. I have also read many two-star books, but I have yet to find evidence that the state of contemporary literature and cinema is as base as often portrayed.
Worse than the average critic is the illiterate one. A few words of advice for them:
As your reader, I am not impressed by your unwillingness to punctuate or use capital letters— you are not ee cummings.
No opus of any kind has ever failed because it was long, only because it cannot fill its length with meaning.
complaining that something— anything— was too difficult to be good makes you look stupid. We do not want to read the opinions of stupid people, so do not even try to review things you do not understand.
posted
Were people in general ever that good at criticism? Technology has made it very easy to see the opinions of anyone who cares to comment, whereas in the past there was a large barrier preventing most from making their feelings known. Because of this, the average criticism has probably gone down in quality, but if anything the number of good critics has probably risen. It just becomes a matter of filtering the good from the worthless.
Posts: 2437 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
My Criticism class was the one experience of my English major that most made me want to slit my wrists. Not a big fan of most literary criticism--Uncle Orson is just about my style.
And what ricree said. I guess I just don't have high expectations from "anyone can submit" sites.
As for some people expressing their opinion that a given work is difficult to understand, I find that a useful bit of information. Some writers/filmmakers simply add a lot of confusing and unnecessary complexity in an attempt to be arty or intellectual--and if a critic as articulate as, say, OSC expresses that opinion then I will definitely take it into account. Whereas, if someone clearly can't write then I will take their "difficult" critique with a grain of salt. However, all opinions are useful if you are, for example, screening a film before taking a friend or family member to see it, or looking to buy a book as a gift. I don't mind knowing what the LCD thinks. (Although I cringe even writing that sentence, because it sounds pretty darn snobby.)
Posts: 3149 | Registered: Jul 2005
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posted
It's troublesome to write good criticism. It used to be troublesome to write any, because of the trouble in getting it published! But now it's easy. I won't complain much. It's like poll data, with an occasional insight thrown in.
Posts: 1877 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
I was looking at reviews for Tool's 10,000 days album on amazon (for fun, of course), and I stumbled upon this gem.
quote:Ok If your wondering about the spiritual lyrics on this cd yes he believes in God and Jesus Christ no he is not a christian unless his "joke" in 2005 was true he believes his grandma and mother and in heaven right now does he believe its fair no does he blame God yes Will he probably become a Christian before he dies if he isnt already probably once hes very spiritual just not a christian two different things christian and religion are not the same things and are two different things true christians wont try to get you to change or treat you different or act better than you they should accept you and tret you no different and if they do they need to check themselves and get their hyporcritical eyes off of your problems and look at themselves and im tired of people like this tool is truely amazing band and i do hope he Finds Jesus but can show people how a person should act and how not cop out and keep his music and if hypo-christians have a problem they can get over it and be happy in the fact that hes found peace
Notice that it is competely irrelevent to the actual music, points random fingers and shouts barely coherent accusations at nobody in particular. The spelling is also quite beautiful, and the omission of certain punctuation marks work to "spice up the dialogue". Also, this reviewer gave a 5/5 rating, for, apparently, nothing at all.
I know, a kid would have to have no life to spend his time reading reviews of albums he already owns, but I'm weird like that.
Posts: 1594 | Registered: Apr 2006
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posted
Withering to Death by Dir en grey deserved five stars. It's a fantastic CD. I own... 3 copies of it, not counting the copy that's supposed to go to a friend of mine. What makes Withering to Death by Dir en grey such an awesome CD is the diversity of it. This is typical of Dir en grey CDs. They are the sort of band that want put their oar in every genre of rock and it shows. You have the hard driving first song, a perfect opening for the CD as it is exciting. It starts off with two guitars and a rocking riff and the sort of jagged rythm of the drums. The lead singer starts off soft, in almost a whisper which becomes a passionate growl different from most vocals you'd hear in American rock. Then you get the chorus. It's the sort of chorus that makes you want to stand up and bellow it when they are playing it live, and in fact, I have done that on 3 occasions. More softness, more growling, more driving riffs. It's a brilliant song because it's less than 3 minutes long, but not a single note is out of place.
I could go on, especially ranting about the song C and how it starts of reminiscent of Dir en grey's older material, but the song style wise is in several different directions and keep going on till I get to Dead Tree which is anti war and oon to the gentle... well, we get the point.... But really, I could go on.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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posted
I am frequently frustrated by people on video game sites who rate a game a 10 out of 10 and their review starts with, "This game was OK overall..."
They're almost as bad as "STAR TREK ROCKS!!!! 10 STARS!!! This game could be better, but since it's Star Trek..."
Posts: 3950 | Registered: Mar 2006
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quote:only about 25% of these people know what they are doing.
Pel, you might want to consider that people aren't writing criticism, but reviews.
The purpose of a review is to give someone else the information they need to decide if they would like a movie. For example, "This is a hard movie to follow" is useful to those who don't like to watch hard movies.
I'm also not sure why you would expect more than 25% to write eloquent prose. We don't expect more people than that to be able to paint like an expert or to sing like an expert.
Just because almost everyone can write, in the sense of putting words together to express ideas, doesn't mean that everyone can write like an expert.
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: [QB] My Criticism class was the one experience of my English major that most made me want to slit my wrists. Not a big fan of most literary criticism--Uncle Orson is just about my style. [QB]
So its the "shove it all under the carpet because it doesn't really matter" school of criticism? Though I'm a big fan of his fiction, OSC is not a born critic. His analysis sometimes strikes a basic truth, but he's never written anything I didn't already know intellectually as well as intuitively. He actively scorns good criticism and alot of literary convention- to his detriment at times. Not that there is anything at all wrong with arguing against the "established" literary traditional and critical tradition, but his dismissals are sloppy and out of hand, as if he and his readers have already agreed to ignore anyone who disagrees fundamentally with his assertions- which are often unfounded and downright silly.
Having said that, I think Peligius, that you are responding not to the depth of modern criticism, but the deluge of it. The Blogosphere is simply a bigger place, and you have easier access to the worst, most unprintable criticism. There is a reason why OSC's articles do not appear in major publications, and I doubt it has to do with his choice in matter- though I don't know for sure.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:Originally posted by ricree101: Were people in general ever that good at criticism? Technology has made it very easy to see the opinions of anyone who cares to comment, whereas in the past there was a large barrier preventing most from making their feelings known. Because of this, the average criticism has probably gone down in quality, but if anything the number of good critics has probably risen. It just becomes a matter of filtering the good from the worthless.
I wonder if Pel has read any Emmerson? Simply the idea that in Emerson's opinion, there was TOO MUCH good criticism for the student's own good- in a manner of speaking. He suggested also that the quality of a writer's prose can make his ideas dangerous, because of the difference between noble prose and noble ideas. We seem to (have we?) forgotten the difference between good writing and good ideas... or even reading and reading well. People believed at one time, that reading something of little merit could be damaging- in the same way that people today believe that rap music or hip-hop might be damaging. I think we ought to reconsider that assertion given the deluge of worthless prose being generated in the blogosphere.
It really should no longer be "just read something" as it was when I was 10. It should be "read something good, and know the difference." My dad always mentions a favorite professor who advised him:
"You can only read about 3,000 books in your life... choose wisely"
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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quote:The purpose of a review is to give someone else the information they need to decide if they would like a movie. For example, "This is a hard movie to follow" is useful to those who don't like to watch hard movies.
This is exactly the reason Siskel and Ebert were so succesful. They took it in turns to address the needs of different audiences. "Two Thumbs Up" was actually less valuable than listening to whether the movie was "good because it was a lot of fun and I enjoyed it" or "Bad because the characters were poorly developed and fails to address the bigger issues that the characters were dealing with."
You could listen to their disagreements and read enough between their lines to decide which of their arguments were meaningful to your interests as a moviegoer.
Posts: 3735 | Registered: Mar 2002
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posted
Roger Ebert has a talent, and I miss him far more than I thought I would. He is far from perfect, but he is very good. The New Yorker still has some very good criticism and The Economist is generally brilliant, although their reviews are seldom less than a month delayed.
What is truly bothersome, however, is the large number of apparently university-educated people who have, judging by all evidence, never been taught to analyze a work. I have read reviews by children that are far better than those by some adults, although the average level of Amazon’s “Kids’ Reviews” is understandably awful. Children seem particularly better than many of their parents.
Not being a parent, I must wonder what overtakes some people the minute that they have a child. I know several parents, many of them are quite normal. Many of them are more than a little strange. An example, particularly bizarre to me, is a woman with a degree in Art History, a field rather well known for nudity, who made her sixteen year old daughter leave the cinema during a showing of The Illusionist because of there being “too much skin.” How much skin constitutes too much is a mystery to me, but it is apparently much less than a typical piece of Renaissance art, which the same woman has no problem with her daughter studying. The Illusionist is, in all other ways, very family friendly and rated at only PG-13.
That example was personal, but these same people write reviews from the same mindset, about the depraved nature of Lemony Snicket who might emotionally scar their preteen children.
Worse than parents who review children literature from such a standpoint are the simply paternalistic who see no reason to confine themselves to any genre. Wives and servants might be harmed by Lady Chatterly, teenagers by Lord of the Flies, needless to say that Fahrenheit 451 is terribly dangerous.
After all, who could possibly benefit from reading a book about sanctimonious self-appointed critics who take offense at every thing and finally convince the government that they are right?
I love the free exchange of information the internet provides, but internet users must learn that they have the same responsibilities as journalists. The internet is a powerful medium, and amateurs who wish to use it to express themselves as only professionals used to able to must learn to act like professionals.
The internet can make Renaissance men out of us all, but only if we treat it as seriously as we took the printing press.
Long live Open Source— may we make ourselves worthy of it.
Posts: 1332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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quote:The internet can make Renaissance men out of us all, but only if we treat it as seriously as we took the printing press.
The printing press has lead to plenty of its own meaningless drivel - it just cost a lot more to get it out there because of the materials involved. The internet will lead to more meaningless drivel because it only costs a person time to write out their schlock.
Making it easier for the masses to access something previously restricted for the elite does not necessarily mean the masses will all elevate themselves to elite status.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I am not so naďve as to think that the internet will ever be devoid of meaningless drivel, nor would these please me. I for one I very happy that there are sites to laugh at.
However, certain sites are serious in both their aims and potential, I am thinking of Wikipedia, Amazon and IMBd type sites. They need to be treated with respect and people need to learn how to use them well. IMBd especially is a mess, its fora are jokes. Wikipedia is by far the most image alert and is generally successful in keeping its content high in quality, largely because content can be, and very frequently is, removed.
Review sites cannot adopt the Wikipedia model, which does not work for opinion pieces, but they must do something. A how to review guide is a start.
Posts: 1332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Well... I would like to point out before I get down to buisness that we're criticizing criticism. Am I the only one who finds that funny?
I think sites like Amazon need to redo their entire reveiw system. Take one of the reviews of the regular edition of the new Foo Fighters CD
quote:This CD is protected against unauthorized duplication.
Whatever. So I pop the CD in the computer so that I can rip it and put it on my iPod. The CD starts playing some auto play stuff and then an embedded Windows Media Player comes up in a web page and allows you to play the songs. Exit. I went into iTunes and hit Import to rip the tracks. When it finished I went to play the tracks and they were all garbled. What's going on?
The CD is protected. It will only allow you to play it on a computer with its technology. You cannot rip tracks from the CD. It specifically states that you cannot move the songs to an iPod because they (in so many words) don't like Apple and Apple isn't working with them so screw Apple. Huh? No, screw you. I like Apple and I just bought your music. But by the way, this album is available at the iTunes Music Store...
The review goes on to say how to remedy this problem but as you can see from the snippet I posted up there it never mentions the music on the CD (which was not as good as their previous efforts) and the reveiwer gives it one star. That one start messes up the average and may turn people off from the actual CD.
By the way, does anyone else hate the kids who go around posting "OMG THIS SUX!!!! METTALLICA AND NIRVANA BEAT THIS ANYDAY!!!!"
Posts: 31 | Registered: Nov 2005
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