And God took up a lump of clay and from it he fashioned an artist and when he was finished, he looked upon his creation and said, ” it is good”. Then he took up the clay that was leftover and from it he made three critics.
With the internet coming of age, the phrase “everybody’s a critic” couldn’t be more true. Virtually everything has a review or a comment appended to it, most of the time by some nameless, faceless person whose competence to pass any sort of judgment we will never get a chance to examine. It gives me the impression that alongside the dyed-in-the wool critics out there that have made a living of pointing out other people’s ‘triumphs & mistakes’ exists another group of pseudo-critics who seem to be seeking fame (or simply recognition) however fleeting by offering an opinion on virtually everything. From Absinthe cocktails to Zimbabwean poetry and everything in between, these people will pin a blurb on it all the time typing in their names and email addresses in hard-to-miss font sizes.
These are the nice, harmless ones whose only crime is having too much time on their hands and the internet’s equivalent of a big mouth. There is another more sinister type of critic, one who appraises their own work. You may know the kind I’m talking about, they write a mediocre novel that even Oxfam would be hard pressed to give away to a remote school library in some literature-starved developing country. The manuscript through a modern miracle is proofread, edited and somehow published and distributed for sale. Here’s the interesting bit, since the internet gives one a certain measure of anonymity, our (exalted?) author then proceeds to ‘buy’ a few copies of his/her own work and then posts numerous glowing reviews of it under various aliases. The end result is the fabrication of a ‘buzz’ on the internet that fashion-victims tend to believe. £4.50 and 6 pages later one realises that they have to put it mildly, had a fast one pulled on them.
Look, I dare to critique the critics!
Audiophile: Peggy Lee – Just one of those things
Off my shelf: Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara – The Motorcycle Diaries
Midday Matinée: The Motorcycle Diaries (2004)
Starring: Gael García Bernal, Rodrigo De la Serna and Mercedes Morán
Directed by: Walter Salles
