TUMBLR
A scrapbook of stuff I'm reading / looking at / listening to / thinking about...
Posts tagged "criticism"
Joshua Glenn writes about one of the first zines he ever read, published by his friends at school in 1985:
what impressed me most about The Mark of Cain is how it inspired a thuggish football player to punch John in the mouth… because the guy (correctly) assumed that the message “Diana, will you please shut the kindly fuck up” inscribed onto one of the zine’s pages was a reference to his girlfriend. John and I were co-editors of the school’s literary magazine, which inspired no such visceral reactions! Not that I wanted to be punched in the mouth, but in some inchoate way I realized then and there that literary publishing would never provide me with the kind of immediate, personal feedback loop I craved.
(Glenn co-edited the book Significant Objects with my friend, Rob Walker.
When Lauren Grodstein’s publisher ran an ebook promotion of her novel, she noticed the number of her Amazon.com reviews shot up, but instead of being 90% positive, they became much more mixed:
[S]o many of these new reviews say things like “holy crap this book was boring,” “it was so so so boring,” or “this book was free and still not worth the money.” […] one thing I’m curious about is whether e-books attract readers who are looking for different things than hard-copy book readers, and another thing is whether people who read e-books are much more likely to review online.
It’s an interesting question. More interesting is Lauren’s response to the negative reviews:
[O]ne great lesson from the Amazon Review Onslaught is that I’ve stopped caring so much what other people think, because once the fifteenth person has told you your book is “so boring” and misspelled both the words “boring” and “so,” you start to realize that not everybody shares your taste or your sensibilities (or your orthography). You also realize that this is fine. I have different taste than some of the people I trust the most in the world…
(via gwendabond)
![David Shields, How Literature Saved My Life1
Stephen Colbert: “You say you’re not bound by 19th century conventions, right? So why are you bound to the 19th century convention of [a] book? Why didn’t you just put this on a website, or xerox it, or pass it out on street corners wearing a trash bag for a dress?”
“[U]n- or even anti-literary types haven’t stopped reading. They just don’t get as excited about the book form. The blog form: immediacy, relative lack of scrim between writer and reader, promised delivery of unmediated reality.” (p. 167)
David Shields’ blog is a list of links to reviews of his book.
He is better at Twitter: @_DavidShields
NYTimes: “When you read David Shields, the first thing you learn is that he takes literature very seriously. The second thing you learn is how seriously he takes his taking seriously of literature.”
“[Ray Kurzweil] seems to me the saddest person on the planet. I emphasize with him completely.” (p. 86)
“Every quality I despise in George Bush is a quality I despise in myself. He is my worst self realized.” (p. 18)
“Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm. ‘Deep inside, you know you’re him.’” (p. 143, “Fifty-Five works I swear by”)
Larry David’s mother: “You’re not funny, Larry. I’ve never heard you say anything funny.”
“I learned a long time ago that the people whom you most want to love your work…won’t.” (p. 134)
Things that happened to me on the plane ride while reading the galley of How Literature Changed My Life: my pen exploded all over my hand, I forgot to stir the dressing for my caesar salad, the stewardess refused to take my empty salad box because she didn’t have a trash bag, and my 6-foot ashtray of a seatmate fell asleep on my arm at least half a dozen times.
“All criticism is a form of autobiography.” (p. 3)
One of Shields’ “proudest literary accomplishments of middle age” is that “‘good’ and ‘bad’ reviews no longer affect me much.” (p. 159)
Note: I put Reality Hunger on the reading list in the back of Steal Like An Artist. You should read it. ↩](http://25.media.tumblr.com/6efe7533a11e9225cb27239bbbb02006/tumblr_mibhyp6OJQ1qz6f4bo1_400.jpg)
David Shields, How Literature Saved My Life1
- Stephen Colbert: “You say you’re not bound by 19th century conventions, right? So why are you bound to the 19th century convention of [a] book? Why didn’t you just put this on a website, or xerox it, or pass it out on street corners wearing a trash bag for a dress?”
- “[U]n- or even anti-literary types haven’t stopped reading. They just don’t get as excited about the book form. The blog form: immediacy, relative lack of scrim between writer and reader, promised delivery of unmediated reality.” (p. 167)
- David Shields’ blog is a list of links to reviews of his book.
- He is better at Twitter: @_DavidShields
- NYTimes: “When you read David Shields, the first thing you learn is that he takes literature very seriously. The second thing you learn is how seriously he takes his taking seriously of literature.”
- “[Ray Kurzweil] seems to me the saddest person on the planet. I emphasize with him completely.” (p. 86)
- “Every quality I despise in George Bush is a quality I despise in myself. He is my worst self realized.” (p. 18)
- “Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm. ‘Deep inside, you know you’re him.’” (p. 143, “Fifty-Five works I swear by”)
- Larry David’s mother: “You’re not funny, Larry. I’ve never heard you say anything funny.”
- “I learned a long time ago that the people whom you most want to love your work…won’t.” (p. 134)
- Things that happened to me on the plane ride while reading the galley of How Literature Changed My Life: my pen exploded all over my hand, I forgot to stir the dressing for my caesar salad, the stewardess refused to take my empty salad box because she didn’t have a trash bag, and my 6-foot ashtray of a seatmate fell asleep on my arm at least half a dozen times.
- “All criticism is a form of autobiography.” (p. 3)
- One of Shields’ “proudest literary accomplishments of middle age” is that “‘good’ and ‘bad’ reviews no longer affect me much.” (p. 159)
-
Note: I put Reality Hunger on the reading list in the back of Steal Like An Artist. You should read it. ↩
Pretty much everything you need to know about taking criticism can be summed up in this article:
- Relax (You’ll be surprised how fast you will recover.)
- Strengthen your neck.
- Practice (Get hit a lot.)
- Breathe.
- Try to absorb the blow, roll with the punch
- Remember to keep your mouth shut
- Protect your vulnerable areas
- Keep your balance
(Thx to Mike Monteiro for the idea: “the skill I picked up in [art] school that turned out to be the most valuable was learning how to take a punch.”)
Bad Reviews: All In The Game
People ask me how I handle bad reviews.1 I wrote about the subject in Steal Like An Artist:
Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored—the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
All of the following scenarios are ascending levels of amazing to me:
- Someone heard of my book
- Someone bought my book
- Someone read my book
- Someone read my book and hated it
- Someone read my book and loved it
Seriously.
And, you always remember that a review says just as much about the reader as it does about the book — first you evaluate the critic, then you can listen or not listen to the criticism.
As Omar said, “It’s all in the game, yo. All in the game.”
As Omar said, “It’s all in the game, yo. All in the game.” Bad reviews aren’t always as cranky or personal, but they’re all in the game.
I got a baby to feed, man—I can’t be lying around in bed!
I wrote about it in the book:
Not everybody will get it. People will misinterpret you and what you do. They might even call you names. So get comfortable with being misunderstood, disparaged, or ignored—the trick is to be too busy doing your work to care.
All of the following scenarios are ascending levels of amazing to me:
- Someone heard of my book
- Someone bought my book
- Someone read my book
- Someone read my book and hated it
- Someone read my book and loved it
Seriously.
And, you always remember that a review says just as much about the reader as it does about the book.
All in the game.
