3 ms·

> think what happened in that time was a kind of competition, where critics like these had a tendency to write things that are more difficult to read, in an at

by ashark 9y ago

> think what happened in that time was a kind of competition, where critics like these had a tendency to write things that are more difficult to read, in an attempt to prove how much more literate they are. Are... these reviews considered difficult to read or especially overwritten, then? Or did you mean something else? > bad rhetoric, involved syntax, stilted sentiment and incoherent English Are these not legitimate grounds on which to judge a book? To the extent that these are smaller concerns for modern reviewers (are they?) I'd guess it has more to do with our having settled on a style of prose that allows little variation and is very simple, for a large majority of literature. We now expect and receive little poetry in our prose, to put it another way.

s4vi0r 9y ago
The reviews aren't all that difficult to read, and maybe it's just that they haven't aged well, but they come off as rather masturbatory to me. It's a review - state your damn thoughts clearly and move on; you aren't the artist, burying your message or opinion under layers and layers of flowery language isn't impressive, its only annoying. IMO the job of a reviewer is to facilitate discussion ("Wow, did you hear? Reviewer X said..", "What? No way, that's not at all what artist Y was going for when they ...", etc.) and to introduce whatever it is they're reviewing to a wider audience (e.g. I may not agree with all of his reviews, but theneedledrop on YouTube has introduced me to tons of new artists and genres)
TheOtherHobbes 9y ago
I don't think Moby Dick suffers from bad rhetoric, etc - although some of these reviews may do. Language has become Hollywoodised over the last few decades. We've lost the ability to express colour and imagination through language - not just through plot or predictable genre tropes. Modern fiction is more like a journalistic description of a movie or TV show, and less like an independent medium that sculpts language into story structures for its own sake.

by ashark 9y ago

s4vi0r 9y ago

The reviews aren't all that difficult to read, and maybe it's just that they haven't aged well, but they come off as rather masturbatory to me. It's a review - state your damn thoughts clearly and move on; you aren't the artist, burying your message or opinion under layers and layers of flowery language isn't impressive, its only annoying. IMO the job of a reviewer is to facilitate discussion ("Wow, did you hear? Reviewer X said..", "What? No way, that's not at all what artist Y was going for when they ...", etc.) and to introduce whatever it is they're reviewing to a wider audience (e.g. I may not agree with all of his reviews, but theneedledrop on YouTube has introduced me to tons of new artists and genres)

TheOtherHobbes 9y ago

I don't think Moby Dick suffers from bad rhetoric, etc - although some of these reviews may do. Language has become Hollywoodised over the last few decades. We've lost the ability to express colour and imagination through language - not just through plot or predictable genre tropes. Modern fiction is more like a journalistic description of a movie or TV show, and less like an independent medium that sculpts language into story structures for its own sake.