From: bob@netxcom.netx.com (Robert Thralls)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems
Subject: Re: Criticism
Date: 12 Oct 92 17:47:34 GMT
Organization: NetExpress Inc., Vienna, VA, USA


<Someone wrote the following>:
> Sounds like a typical High School or college class critiquing papers. 
THAT WAS UNNECESSARY.
>                                                                       No one 
> seems to want to point out errors in others works, many seem to think it is a
> personal attack.
> 

Errors? Interesting choice in words. Perhaps those silent become the target
audience and they relate just fine- not everyone has something to say about
everything. Some respect the author's point of view and even if it were worded
diferently, it would still mean the same to them. For some, elloquence is not
as important as meaning. And if the meaning works for them, it is not an ERROR.

>> work with....i mean why do people post their poems in rap? i do it
>> with the hopes that somebody might be able to offer some critical 

<<< Steph >>>
<<< Then get your email address changed, so that things are not returned as
<<< 'User unknown'....  ;^o   (moo).

> 
> I do it to get the ideas that have been gnawing at my brain out in the open 
> in a public forum where others can see them. And hopefully to get some feedback

FEEDBACK.... bingo.

<END quotes from someone other than steph>

> who you are- you think Atwood, Piercy, Sexton write in a vacuum, you think
> the "big' poets don't value criticism, know when and how to take, when to
> drop it off and forget it- and slowly groping, together, to somehow get
> closer to success, the truth. in short, criticism is merely learning
> how to communicate with others about our art, our lives,  how we all
> move and work together in the human project, and if people feel "touchy"
> about critiquing others, it's not surprising, but it's no excuse to step
> out into the margins and leave the POSITIVE experience behind.
> 			   Stephanie Steele
> 			steele@chip.aem.umn.edu

I don't know of an author alive who hasn't had to face an editor.
I certainly hope they teach tact in the School of Journalism and Communication.
An editor's job is the toughest of all, altering art to fit needs of the 
'critical mass'. (Yes, that is humor)


ON CRITICISM:

Criticism is a personal response. If one says, "This sucks," then it is 
only a personal opinion. If one lacks the verbalization to say why it sucks,
then his critique also "sucks." The personal response should be worded as
such and not to illude that any other may also read with the same eyes.
Critiques without roughness can have the same effect as those with some form
of the word "suck" in it. But, sometimes, "sucks" may describe a feeling
that no other word quite fits. Tone of the critique plays an important role
as reflection of the piece in question. Let one not criticise without releasing
the emotional wave behind it. Feedback, perhaps the most important quality
of criticism, tells the author if his point is too dull, completely as intended,
or too one sided, as a blade slashing at his reader. Delivery of the point
is all but too important. One may offer an alternative tone, stance, or just
say how one felt about the piece in context of what it meant to the reader.
One may find that art takes the form of words. Whatever the object in question,
the change of such an object for the beholder to veiw must be the basis of the 
criticism. None may assume that the author wishes to change his thought, nor
the beholder to actually understand the piece in its entirety. The reader and
critic may not be of the target audience, if one exists. The critic should 
weigh that thought heavily before imposing condemnation or directing change
in such a work. Four questions for the critic:

	- What is the cricital mass and is theme delivered appropriately
	- Am i of the target, did I get it
	- Do i have something constructive to say
	- Will it alter the author's view of the piece and lead to improvement

PS: I only read for content and delivery method, everything else is style and 
belongs solely to the author. Any usage of the term "suck" in previous critiques
holds true to the best of my knowledge.   (moo)
On another note, I have never written a letter to an editor... I write many
letters.

Arnica Montana
Newsgroups: rec.arts.poems