Useless People 2

[mishalak]

You know that old line about "Those that can, write, and those that can't criticize"? I think that isn't actually true. It is just that the 90% rule applies to people writing about what's wrong with a genre today just as much as it does to the fiction itself. So it really isn't surprising that I've recently noticed quite a number of badly written essays that seek to excoriate writers for producing stuff that is crap by whatever metric the critic has made up.

A good example of this badly thought out "essay" is one by Seán Harnett over at Spike. The best I can say of his writing is that he at least doesn't make some startlingly bad spelling mistakes that other internet windbags make. Though he does make the same unsupported jumps of logic to "prove" how much better things used to be and how if writers or editors were just brave then everything would be better. Totally ignoring the contrary evidence that mostly (never totally) the reading public gets what it wants.

The best I can say for him is that at least he doesn't make his rant a political tract against the vast leftwing conspiracy crushing hard science fiction like famous net-idiot Dave Truesdale does over on Tangent. It is terribly useful for me to have these people around. They make easy targets for my cynical humor and nasty comments. Keep up the good work my brainless punching bags.

Comments

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

I recently read a very interesting essay criticizing modern prose, and I kept thinking it was a shame the essayist wasn't a sci-fi/fantasy reader, because I would have loved to hear his opinions on my favorite authors and the ones everyone likes that I can't read.

[mishalak.livejournal.com]

Was it interesting like a train wreak or like watching a well made clock? For the most part I regard criticism on writing to be the bookish equivalent of arguments over how many angels can dance upon the head of a pin. Unless a person is talking about something like spelling or usage there it is all based upon a person's opinions. Essays on writing are almost entirely fact free environments with no more significance or worth than ontological proofs of god.

I try to avoid falling into that trap, though I probably don't, but at least I'm not so full of myself that I regard my opinions as handed down from on high as the objective measure of what is best like so many of the self important navel gazers of the internet.

[ajournalguy.livejournal.com]

Erm.... Both. My mother said it's my sadistic streak, that I enjoyed watching this guy pick apart some critically acclaimed authors who really aren't that good at writing. It all rang very true, though, and I must admit that while I disagreed on a few points( not that I think the author would mind, rather, I think he'd be thrilled at the prospect of a reader thinking for himself), I have not been able to read in quite the same way since. The response to criticism of the original publication wasn't as interesting as the original essay itself, but, oh well. Go to the bookstore and check it out.