a looking-glass book

amis on criticism

started reading 'the war against cliche' today. the intro is online as its own piece (mostly) here.

from the article:
"Democratisation has made one inalienable gain: equality of the sentiments. I think Gore Vidal said this first, and he said it, not quite with mockery, but with lively scepticism. He said that, nowadays, nobody's feelings are more authentic, and thus more important, than anybody else's. This is the new credo, the new privilege. It is a privilege much exercised in the contemporary book review, whether on the web or in the literary pages. The reviewer calmly tolerates the arrival of the new novel or slim volume, defensively settles into it, and then sees which way it rubs him up. The right way or the wrong way. The results of this contact will form the data of the review, without any reference to the thing behind. And the thing behind, I am afraid, is talent, and the canon, and the body of knowledge we call literature."

so what does literary criticism have to do with this blog or my work?

well, im working on this paper still. and this sums up my main point fairly well. the second half of the paper is discussing the solutions to the problem.

but its nice to see the same problems i am grappling wit, written by someone of higher stature about a different field. it validates some of my thoughts, if nothing else.