critics raze those who cannot do eavesdrop on those who can, their stealth bombers affording them a panoramic view. they wait for the right moment to strike, and open fire while screaming, "you're doing it wrong!" i have a creeping suspicion if they were asked to demonstrate the proper way to do things, they'd suddenly have nothing to say. 130613 ... epitome of incomprehensibility But sometimes they say nice things, like "I love the way you do metaphors." True, it isn't "I love the way you smile" or "You are an amazing superbeing through and through" but it's a heartfelt, or at least mindfelt, "I love the way you do metaphors." They sometimes even quote you to prove their point: "it had legs. magnificent, terrible, sturdy legs content to jog in place on an unwitting tongue all night long" (the_worst_gum_in_the_world) and then make an allusion to something they are too lazy to quote. For instance, they might say that the part about being "grilled" (questioned) to the point of burning lightened an otherwise dark moment in __siblings__ 130709 ... raze that's very kind of you. my fingers are blushing with gratitude. sometimes i think i overdo the metaphors and get too non sequitur-ish with them, but words are too much fun not to have fun with. i really enjoy your writing too, whether it's surreal and overflowing with creative energy ("the_catachresis_seller" almost made me fall over the first time i read it) or more ground-level personal stuff (which is no less interesting). we are the anti-mean critics! we are saying nice things! i think my issue is not so much with proper critics, really, but with people who tear everything everyone else does down all the time and can never find anything constructive to say about anything. the people who are sort of self-appointed authorities, who take it upon themselves to tell everyone what they should be doing and how they should be doing it. the "do as i say, not as i do" types. i'm admittedly guilty of this myself at times, but i plead the perfect fifth. maybe i should have given this blathe a more apt title, like "super morose opponents of stuff-doers". that sounds like a group meeting for failed super-villains trying to save face, doesn't it? 130709 ... e_o_i It's not you, it's a difficult word because critic/critique/critical etc. have many flavours of meaning. 130710 ... e_o_i Right now I have a book called Dictionary of Critical Theory in my lap, and it isn't a book about the theory of hating things. Might be more fun if it were, but at least I got the word "catachresis" out of it. Anyway, I think that critiques of a work in progress do well when they include both praise and suggestions, with specific examples. This is the kind of feedback I've experienced in creative writing classes, workshop-style. To read a harsh critique of a published work can be interesting, at least to see what kinds of things the reviewer doesn't like, but sometimes they get mean-sounding and I feel like they're pounding a wall: what do they hope to accomplish? getting the person to write better next time? Or are they only vaunting their own sense of superiority? I think the latter is what you were, well, criticizing. Although I've been known to annoy people by pointing out spelling mistakes, I try to approach it from a place of "everyone makes spelling mistakes and language is fluid" and so on. I don't feel bad laughing at a student who writes "The heroin is also the narrator of Jane Eyre" when I remember the time I said "I CAN eat the newspaper when I'm reading breakfast!" or claiming that "in Italy, they don't check your IQ when you buy alcohol." (They don't, you know.) 130710 ... epitome of incomprehensibility anyway I mean, not laughing in front of the student. THAT would be mean. I don't get it when people accuse you of being your own worst critic: why is that a bad thing? One of the problems with my writing is that I'm either mundane or incomprehensible. Not an "epitome" either; that was just a teenage boast and inaccurate as most teenage boasts are. And, my God, the convoluted sentences. Blame grad school for that. But now I have a plate of watermelon slices on my lap and all is well. 130710 ... e_o_i Excellent paragraph-stories yesterday on "condescending" and "we'll." The first suggests more than it tells, and makes me think twice about the title. The second whirls free-wheeling word association between mind and matter, and gives a vivid if not pretty (but who needs "pretty" all the time?) image. 131124 ... raze i've been fascinated by the things the (new?) person with the rotating names has been writing over the past few days. welcome to the red sister to the blue place, if you haven't been before. pleased to meet / read your words. (and my paragraph-long story thanks you. it's fun to write little snapshots like that. sometimes i think they're the only stories i know how to finish...) 131124 what's it to you? who go blather from