4 ms·
I distinguish between criticism and reviewing, where criticism is, ultimately, about putting a work in context, and reviewing is about telling someone whether a
by msla 4y ago
I distinguish between criticism and reviewing, where criticism is, ultimately, about putting a work in context, and reviewing is about telling someone whether a work is likely to be worth their time. Both can be done in the same piece, of course, and the longer reviews include some aspects of criticism at least to the extent of an after-action report: This work was good/bad, so let's explore what worked/didn't work to contribute to that, which is done in the context of the general language of whatever medium the work is in.
On the other hand, reviews don't need to do that, and the shorter ones don't, and criticism certainly doesn't need to engage with the question of whether a piece of media is at all enjoyable.
So a review can be right or wrong from my perspective based on how well it reflects my tastes.
- chongli 4y agoYes exactly. Proper criticism tries to leave preferences out and instead investigate the context of a piece and how it influences other work, how the work was influenced by the context in which it was created. Look at a piece like Picasso’s Guernica [1] without any context and in all likelihood you’ll consider it an ugly, confusing mess. But then if you take some time to read the history [2] and it completely changes how you look at the work. [1] https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/ParisUpdate-guernica-MuseePicasso2-1024x730.jpg https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Paris... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Guernica
- Sakos 4y agoThat's an important point. I don't believe reviews should leave out preferences. They should be explicit, yet distanced enough. I judge games through the reviews based on how I've contextualized a reviewer's likes and dislikes. My favorite reviewers might not like a game, but admit that the things that bother them might not bother somebody else and they point out things that might appeal to people with different preferences.