3 ms·
Good criticism elevates the craft of critical writing above simply giving a "yea" or "nay" and also doesn't just summarize the plot. Sadly, that's like 90% of m
by beezlebroxxxxxx 4y ago
Good criticism elevates the craft of critical writing above simply giving a "yea" or "nay" and also doesn't just summarize the plot. Sadly, that's like 90% of modern media criticism these days. You've named some of the outliers. Good critics are like guides on a hike or cartographers: clarifying, examining, and situating the work in, its context (which is to say our context). Book criticism, because it is a far older tradition, seems to have a relatively thriving critical scene, even if it is increasingly getting fenced off into things like NYRB, LRB, ERB, or other literary reviews. Movie criticism, likely because of its frankly often parasitic relationship with Hollywood (reviews for access), seems to be moving away from thriving independent publications able to "tell it like it is".
I would really recommend ReverseShot for probably some of the consistently best writing on film: http://reverseshot.org/ http://reverseshot.org/
David Bordwell's blog is also pretty interesting (for those who don't know, he is an extremely well known film scholar with a focus on Hollywood cinema). http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/ http://www.davidbordwell.net/blog/
Little White Lies out of the UK is also pretty good. It has extremely good art and graphic design in magazine form.
- AlbertCory 4y agoVery well said, thanks. I've heard NYRB satirized as "New York Reviews of Each Others' Books"
- beezlebroxxxxxx 4y agoThe NYRB, and to a lesser extent the LRB, is pretty infamous for that. They are also infamous for long essays that only reference the book under review in the very last paragraph. It's more like the "review" is a pretense to spiral out long essays on the topics, which are often very interesting and they always have very good writing. NYRB also is, in my opinion, way too focused on non-fiction, especially after Bob Silvers passed. The occasional "Fiction" issue they have is always fascinating and I wish they'd open it up a bit to more fiction. I'm very excited for a recent newbie: The European Review of Books, for its focus on non-english works which I think is an enormously untapped reservoir. They publish annually; the format is like a book.
- AlbertCory 4y agoSince I have two books out, and I guess I entered some contests and listed it on Reedsy as "seeking reviews," I'm now being inundated by spam emails offering to guarantee me FORTY REVIEWS of my books! I would assume these people, at least, will read the book. Or at least skim it. I can also pay the Kirkus Review $450 to get a "professional" review. I passed on that one, too. It's interesting to be on the other side of this game.
- beezlebroxxxxxx 4y agoIn my limited experience, Kirkus Review fails the most simple of tests for whether I think I should care about their reviews: how willing are they to say a book sucks? I don't think I have ever seen a scathing Kirkus Review, while I've seen some legendary ones in other pubs. Not hatchet jobs; methodical take downs of a book, even if it is 'hyped'. Kirkus' schtick is a review as a marketing tool. They specialize in milquetoast praise fit for breathless quotes on book covers.
- AlbertCory 4y agoAs an author, I can tell you that if they write a bad review of my book (not that I've hired them), I can decide not to use it. So they have an incentive not to say anything to make an author discard it.