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Are Critics Bitter?
By Kyle | March 8, 2013
Alexander Nazaryan has an interesting piece on Salon in which he confesses that he was a poor candidate to review certain novels. Why? Because their authors were similar to him in background, which made him jealous, which made him slam the books:
Consequently, the reviews I wrote came to bear a stench of bitterness, none more so than one I wrote for the Village Voice in 2008 in which I took on two debut novelists, Keith Gessen and Nathaniel Rich. After comparing them to James Joyce and Ralph Ellison, I proceed to snidely savage their work. It is true: I did not like their novels. But my dislike was set aflame by jealousy of young men whose profiles were similar to mine and who had managed to do what I had not. I remain more embarrassed by that piece than by any other. Keith, Nate: I am sorry.
I’ve been on both sides of this problem: I’ve reviewed books by people like me (and had my books trashed by people like me. I note with some amusement that a notable attack on my first book was written by a peer who appears still not to have published the book he was described as working on at the time, 9 years ago. The resentment that comes from not being published when others like you are can be strong, I think.)
I try to be objective, especially to my peers, but who knows whether I succeed? (By the way, I think Nathaniel Rich has major potential. “The Mayor’s Tongue” impressed me a lot.)
I tend to gravitate toward reviews written by equals — I’d rather read Martin Amis on John Updike than Tibor Fischer (who?) on Martin Amis. On the other hand, Martin Amis was friendly with John Updike (and Christopher Hitchens regularly reviewed novels by his friends Ian McEwan and Salman Rushdie, always favorably as far as I could tell). Even if Amis and Updike weren’t friends, they might have expected to run into each other at dinner parties when Updike was alive. Each had strong incentives to be slightly kinder than they might have been inclined to be when writing about the other. And when you read prominent writers on other prominent writers, you sometimes get the feeling that they’re being too nice, pulling their punches. (I don’t think Amis did, as a general rule, and find his literary criticism to be the best writing of its kind, though it seems noteworthy that when Updike died, Amis chose that moment to trash him, in what I thought was a picayune manner.)
So: The answer is, there is no answer. What’s a reader to do? Read several reviews before making a decision. I do think editors should be wary about assigning reviewers who are from the peer group of the people they’re reviewing, especially if they seem to have a track record of not liking any writer from the same demographic.
The book critic Tranter in Sebastian Faulks’s novel “A Week in December,” by the way, is an excellent personification of a reductio ad absurdum of the tendency: He is spoof of a reviewer who hates everything by living writers and can only praise himself to bring dead ones.
Topics: Books |
March 8th, 2013 at 7:09 pm
I don’t think the author of A Christmas Caroline is bitter at all. Kyle Smith is bigger than that.
March 9th, 2013 at 1:11 pm
“Teachers teach because cannot do” right? And so, critics critique because they cannot do. That is to say that most critics do not want to be critics. It seems obvious by your self important tone in everything you write that you do not see yourself as a movie critic, yet here you are, placed as high up as your talents could bring you. So you, and others like you, squirm and lash dealing with the reality that you are not the next big thing. Where can you find solace or a place to release some of the pain from feeling you have been slighted? At the expense of someone else’s writing. Your eyes are bitter from the beginning because you shouldn’t even have to be reading this. You should be collecting money from the movie deal for Christmas Caroline and using that money to focus more on your work and less on Pixar films. So, alas, every critique is a reflection of your failed writing. The answer is Yes, although you are too much of a coward to face it, you are always going to be bias and cynical, because that is the place of a critic who cannot create their own masterpiece.
March 9th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
Yeah, Kyle Smith is a real stand up guy. Except for his aggressively ignorant attacks on people he does not think can stand up for themselves. Other than that, stand up dude. Cowardly nothing using the internet irresponsibly to try and bring attention to himself in ways that his novels cannot without considering those he offends. Otherwise, he is bigger than that. My apologies
March 9th, 2013 at 2:19 pm
Commenters are bitter.
Eight one-star reviews of Kyle’s books on Amazon were posted since his waiter rant. Coincidence?
March 9th, 2013 at 2:26 pm
certainly possible that it is a coincidence considering the quality of his writing. Much more likely, however, that it is bias, which was my original point about critics.
March 9th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
Who wants to bet that Laurent is a waiter, and a bitter one to boot?
March 9th, 2013 at 10:13 pm
Does the fact that I have waited tables somehow muddle my statements? Please bring forth an articulate defense of anything on this pathetic site and let me handle you as Kyle is too cowardly to discuss this himself. Let this also be a calling out to Kyle Smith at any time in any public format discuss anything with me, especially your incredibly pathetic poorly thought out article on waiters, and see just how intelligent a source you are on anything. Kishke, say something that means something, because just saying that I have waited tables means literally zero. Bitter? No. Not towards life. just towards the ignorant people who stand behind computers and say whatever they want because there is no consequence for your lack of intelligence or courage. My name is Laurent Sterk. I live in Bushwick Brooklyn, and I am calling Kyle Smith out publicly to discuss his statements. I am saying on this site and any other that Kyle Smith is a talentless moron who took his need for attention too far. It must be tough to spend time writing a book and have nobody care but you took it out on the wrong people. Let me know where to talk with you about this. Or go on and critique James Franco’s career and stop trying to make something out of yours out of shock value.
March 10th, 2013 at 1:09 am
>>It must be tough to spend time writing a book and have nobody care but you took it out on the wrong people.
What? Kyle’s not writing a book on waiters. Start making sense, okay buddy?
March 10th, 2013 at 3:25 am
Does the fact that I have waited tables somehow muddle my statements?
Who knows? Maybe you’re a waiter because your thoughts are muddled. Maybe the other way around. No one knows, and no one cares.
Kishke, say something that means something,
You mean like the babbling, meaningless insults you’re spewing here b/c Kyle insulted waiters and you happen to be one? No thanks. Take my advice, fella: Man up, and don’t be so defensive about your job. You’ll feel a lot better about life.
March 10th, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Ok, Zach, I never implied that Kyle was writing a book about waiters. I should have considered the audience before assuming that you guys could read and interpret well enough to have this pointless discussion. After all you are Kyle Smith fans. What I am saying is that Kyle’s failures in his personal writing career and subsequent seat at a bad newspaper’s movie critic desk have left this poor young “writer” starved for attention. That is where poorly thought out irresponsible trash like his waiter article come from. And to give credit where it is due, he certainly got the cheap attention boost he was looking for. But at what cost? Exposing himself as a cowardly idiot who picks on waiters of all people. Not to mention just happens to throw in that he likes to visit France, I mean come on Zack. Come on Kishke. You may not be the smartest people in the world but even you can read between these lines. The guy is a tool, plain and simple. And a talentless one at that.
Kishke, I appreciate the life advice, but I am a grown man and I am very happy. On the day that I ask for advice it certainly will not be from someone who patrols blogs and thoughtlessly acts as its witless bodyguard.
This is not about waiting tables. I don’t care for it myself. This is about someone who put no thought into an article and broadly disrespected a group of people at the bottom of the food chain for his own benefit. It takes no courage. It takes a sad little man in need of attention. And the fact that you fools support this nothing as he publicly slanders defenseless people with arguments that are not even accurate in any way (and by the way I also like France and a finger in my…) says enough to me to quit while I am behind. Thanks for showing me that there is still a world out there where people do not think for themselves.
March 10th, 2013 at 8:09 pm
Kishke, I appreciate the life advice, but I am a grown man and I am very happy. On the day that I ask for advice it certainly will not be from someone who patrols blogs and thoughtlessly acts as its witless bodyguard.
This is not about waiting tables.
Of course it’s about waiting tables. And a happy grown man does not troll blogs looking for things to wax indignant about.
March 11th, 2013 at 12:37 am
you are a strange one Kishke, you essentially just called yourself unhappy and I cannot tell if you hate waiters too or are hoping to sleep with Kyle. One thing is clear, you hate addressing any actual points. Not sure why I expected anything different in a conversation on an internet blog. Really its my fault for taking the bait here. I just thought it was necessary to call this punk out a bit. Wasted enough time here. All clear on your watch buddy boy.