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Oh, there is structure. Criticism comes in the following best practice, and you'll see this construct throughout most all litcrit (except for, you guessed it, t

Oh, there is structure. Criticism comes in the following best practice, and you'll see this construct throughout most all litcrit (except for, you guessed it, the page-padding hacks who talk around the topic rather than about it): 1) Establish the "text" in question as well as the "context" of the text (certain themes, symbolism, diction, universality, etc.) 2) apply culturual congruity (whether you are applying the criticism to the time when the text was written or to modern times), 3) Establish your point of argument and/or analysis. 4) Apply argument to the text 5) Connect the evidence of this argument. 6) Conclusion The fact that I use Bloom as a shining example of "good" criticism should steer you in the direction that there is quality there. His just one example of good work. Is there an API to access Plato's Republic's quality hooks? No, but there are best practices. Just because you refuse to see them as common criteria doesn't diminish the task at hand. If you refuse to accept it as legitimate, you might as well refuse to accept there are such things as great literature and creation beyond the programmatic kind.

Retric 16y ago
I have spent a ridicules amount of time reading everything from trash to the classics and most well respected works are terrible. I blame the form of "Criticism” you just described because it does nothing of the sort. Then again I might be the only person who morns all the interesting works never created because the echo chamber effect that infects the literary world. Everyone is to afraid say anything of substance lest they be accused of “not getting it”.
- decode 16y ago
  "There is no great literature, there is old literature and moving literature, but they are not the same thing." And when most people talk about great literature, they aren't talking about either thing. Most people mean something like Adler's Great Books criteria when they talk about great literature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books

Retric 16y ago

I have spent a ridicules amount of time reading everything from trash to the classics and most well respected works are terrible. I blame the form of "Criticism” you just described because it does nothing of the sort. Then again I might be the only person who morns all the interesting works never created because the echo chamber effect that infects the literary world. Everyone is to afraid say anything of substance lest they be accused of “not getting it”.

decode 16y ago
"There is no great literature, there is old literature and moving literature, but they are not the same thing." And when most people talk about great literature, they aren't talking about either thing. Most people mean something like Adler's Great Books criteria when they talk about great literature: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_books