Inane
This is in response to the post of friend and creator, Jessica Barksdale Inclan--"Things That Hurt."
I’m currently reviewing a novel for the Washington Post. When I was offered the assignment, I emailed the senior editor, Ron Charles, to say, “As soon as I receive my review copy, I will begin reading, and I if I discover that I really dislike it, I will return it immediately so someone else can have a chance at the review. My opinion is just my opinion. If it is a badly written book, the work will die a natural death without my or someone else's lethal pen.”
If you can’t be life-engendering, keep quiet. A book review is not the place for a fellow writer to display his or her stylistic acrobatics and wit at the expense of the maker. Primum non nocere -- "First, do no harm." I wish it were the credo of all reviewers in life, book critics and otherwise.
When I was small, I was given a book on art appreciation, and one of the images contained was an etching by Peter Bruegel, the elder. It was titled THE ARTIST AND THE CRITIC. I didn’t understand it when I was eleven, but it bears a special meaning having now been in the world as a maker for many decades.
In Bruegel’s etching, the painter is symbolic of all creative endeavors. The creator, wielding the brush with his authoritative and powerful arm, dominates the scene; the critic with his crooked dog leg clutches a purse. The creator’s eyes are intense and concentrating on his work; the critic is myopic and his mouth is a mere slit, offering uninvited remarks.
The creator’s nose is straight while the critic sticks his beak into business not his own. The creator’s hair and beard signifies richness, fecundity, productivity while the critic is hairless, asexual and sterile.
Bruegel is one of my absolute favorite makers and he has rendered the critic inane.
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Jessica Barksdale Inclan says:
More on the topic, sidenotes, really
Above your smiling hated face is a blog about one-star reviews from Amazon. Kristy Kiernan blogged about her book's one star reviews and I posted a brand new one-star review for everyone's enjoyment. For some reason, those reviews don't bother me. Apparently, they do bother some writers who go to amazing ends to get rid of them, eliminating them from the site. But to me, they may be thoughtless and rude and just flat out WRONG, but they are true in a sense (unless the writer is writing them).
But with critics--the ones who are trying to show off, or who live for the negative, for the way to show how nothing will ever be perfect enough in this whole damn world. That's another story.
My Intro to Fiction class at UCLA and I just finished reading Bullet to the Brain, and I had to write to them a gret deal about Anders, Tobias Wolff's character, the critic. Why is he so shallow? Why is he focusing on the minutae when he's about to get shot? My students wanted to know.
He's a critic.
Belle, if you reviewed any book, you would bring with your review a true sense of the book. Because you have nothing to prove, no axe to grind, nothing to be smart about, you would do the book justice, trying to see the whole.
Once in the Washington Post, a reviewer got a hold of a novel of mine, The Instant When Everything is Perfect. It is NOT a romance. Not at all. But she had an axe to grind about romances. She didn't like them at all, shall I say.
Below, is the link that gives you a taste of a reviewer who wants to spread a negative view of a type of book that many, many people love. And then, she throws in her ignorance by including a book that is not a romance at all. Her feelings, her tone, her superiority run right through every line.
Here it is: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/09/AR2006020901740.html
Thank you for reviewing something though. It gives me some faith in the system!
J
Jessica Barksdale Inclan www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
Belle Yang says:
John Orr
is our fellow redroom.com member, and when I stated in his early post that a potential reviewer must have had suffered bad reviews himself during an especially arduous book tour to qualify for the job.
He said, many of the writers who have suffered most from a negative review turn right around and write nasty things about other people's work.
I was thinking more about your peer reviews at the college where you teach when I wrote the above post, because I caught myself critical of what my fellow reunion planners were doing when I should just have been grateful that they were shouldering the burden. I told myself to SHUT UP. It's just so easy to watch others do, make, create, organize, build then stand to the side, as the critic does in the Bruegel etching, and be a pain in the arse.
As for book reviewers, there are so many wannabes or has-beens who review and they try to do their somersaults on your splayed out body. Aha, maybe the answer is for us more or less established writers to volunteer for the reviews. Most established writers don't have the time or the inclination to review. They get their thrills from the actually writing of their own books. I was reluctant to review the book for the WaPo because I take the reviewer's work seriously and the job takes a lot of time away from my work.
If anyone cares to know, the most viscious, heartless reviewers are those who review children's books. Unbelievable! There is a Chinese saying, "They search for bones in the tofu."
I'm fortunate the book I am reviewing is very good and I am learning a lot so it is not at all wasted time.
Your reviewer in the WaPo does sound like God-on-high. I will avoid that tone. Methinks a reviewer doesn't have to be a know-it-all but a peer with a sense of inquiry and discovery.
Jessica Barksdale Inclan says:
An assignment
I send my students on is called "The Writer Write-Up." It's a bad title, I know. But the assignment entails them going to a reading held by a writer who is writing what we are reading in class. Some classes have the choice of going to a variety of genres--some maybe just fiction.
But even for those who did not like the writing being read, all come out with an appreciation of how hard it was to 1) write the book 2) read the book in front of people 3) deal with publishing. they learn about the process of creating and about the process of delivering. And they learn that to be a critic is not always a valid thing--to see the whole piece of a person is important.
I think that students review because they feel impotent--they feel I am in charge and I have ruined their lives. They don't see that they have earned the grade they earned themselves. And that is hard to acknowledge.
I love your idea. Let's volunteer to review more often. Or maybe I should start going into amazon and writing up the positive comments I have about the books I read. Yes, I don't like some things, but why spread the horrible wealth?
J
Jessica Barksdale Inclan www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
Belle Yang says:
Jessica,
I'll submit your name with great enthusiasm to Ron Charles when I turn my review in.
Jessica Barksdale Inclan says:
I'm in!
I review with confidence and love and truth--no axe to grind, no mountain to climb!
J
Jessica Barksdale Inclan www.jessicabarksdaleinclan.com
Eric Nichols says:
Well, dang! l like that
Well, dang!
l like that Belle Yang
She is a swell thang,
(She makes my bell clang!)
Eric
Belle Yang says:
Eric, you are a funny bunny, but
Yang rhymes with "young" or "dung."
I prefer you remember me as forever young Yang.
Eric Nichols says:
I knew that
But it doesn't rhyme "visually" as well.
I guess poetry should be heard and not seen...:)
May your bones stay young, Xiao Belle.
Eric
Darlene Arden says:
What a Relief....
....to find that I'm not alone. I won't trash a book. Let someone else do it if they must. I'll confess to having written a few positive reviews on Amazon when time permits, and starting two Amazon lists of books and music I've enjoyed and would recommend.
We live in difficult times. As another writer pointed out to me this week: how can we complain about book sales when people are trying to decide between buying groceries and gas? If we can show that a book is worthwhile, we can do something positive for another author. How else can he or she put gas in their car or food on their table? And what could we possibly gain by being negative?
Thanks, Belle, for a great blog post.
Belle Yang says:
Just remembered
Primum non nocere--"First, do no harm."
Darlene, you'd think this would be obvious. I sent two books that were just unreadable for me.
It's simply bad juju to trash someone's book. For punishment, you'll come back in another life as the reader of the slush pile.
Huntington Sharp says:
Bad Reviews
I just want to make sure that everyone on this thread has read two interesting previous ones by two other Red Room authors. First, Victoria Zackheim posted a great piece on bad reviews through history; the comments were particularly interesting. And B., Jamie Carie's blog entry was featured on Red Room's homepage last week.
Huntington Sharp, Red Room
Brandon R Schrand says:
First, thank you!
Thank you for your kind comments on my blog about my award, but mostly thanks for this post! I couldn't agree more, and I could go on and on and on about how right you are, but I will just say thank you.
Also, I just finished teaching Kingston's China Men in my American Lit course, and now I look forward to your book, Baba! Can't wait to read it and teach it!
Cheers,
Brandon Schrand
Belle Yang says:
Brandon
I love China Men. I would be quite honored if you taught "Baba." It was used for the Freshman Core Course at UCSC and in a lit class in UCLA.