{"id":40077,"date":"2013-12-15T11:55:58","date_gmt":"2013-12-15T18:55:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/15\/being-smarmy-vs-being-snarky.html"},"modified":"2013-12-16T06:40:25","modified_gmt":"2013-12-16T13:40:25","slug":"being-smarmy-vs-being-snarky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/12\/15\/being-smarmy-vs-being-snarky.html","title":{"rendered":"Being Smarmy vs Being Snarky"},"content":{"rendered":"
I'm sure there is a whole intellectual school of review and what reviewing means and the meta-meanings of review that will sniff at what I'm about to say as woefully naive.<\/p>\n

But it seems the debate between being Nice and being Mean in reviews are both founded on a false premise: that it is necessary to establish a tone prior to acting, or, rather, that a review is not a reaction to a creative work, but an essay itself with a purpose.<\/p>\n

That purpose may be to (on the nice side) make consumers of the review feel good about doing so, or to get the creator to pull-quote the reviewer on the cover (or, even better, ask them for an introduction to the next installment). Or the purpose may be to (on the nasty side) pursue a particular aesthetic ideological argument regardless of the work in question (X is per se rubbish, therefore if this work is actually enjoyable, it is X and so must be called rubbish), or to come across as snooty and superior (perhaps in pursuit of a book deal).<\/p>\n

What I want from a reviewer is honesty<\/i> and perspective<\/i> and humility.<\/i> \u00a0<\/p>\n

The honesty part comes in describing how they enjoyed\u00a0the book (or not), what they liked, disliked, found memorable, found forgettable.<\/p>\n

The perspective part is perhaps some placement of the book within intellectual or literary traditions, in the context of the author's other works, and so forth. \u00a0Here's where some of the meta-commentary comes in, but it is (or should be) divorced from the first part. \u00a0You can like a book (or even parts of it) and still find the overall message or tradition or form to be problematic. \u00a0You can find an author's corpus to be, net-net, triffic, but still disagree with aspects of a particular work.<\/p>\n

The humility part is perhaps the hardest, because a reviewer is, per se, espousing their opinions (perhaps with a smattering of facts to go alongside). \u00a0But the reviewer has to realize they aren't really-truly speaking ex cathedra<\/i> on matters of aesthetics. \u00a0"I didn't like this book" does not equal "This was a horrible book". \u00a0"I liked this book" does not equal "This is an instant literary classic." It's hard to include a few overarching comments, but accept that not everyone is going to share your opinion, vs. feeling (or, worse, asserting) that anyone who doesn't is a dolt.<\/p>\n

But, ultimately, it comes back to the first item. \u00a0Be honest. If you're writing an review for some other reason than to share your thoughts and opinions and even perspective on a given work, you're a hack. \u00a0If you're doing it to cultivate your public image, or to seek future work, or to advance some cause, you're doing a disservice to the consumers of your review. \u00a0It's fine to have a voice, to have a perspective, to have an opinion. It's not fine to trash a book (or laud a book) (or movie, TV show, game, piece of art, etc.) for the sake of doing so.<\/p>\n

Reshared post from +Angela Craft<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

"An intellectual has a solemn obligation to speak out negatively against ideas or books that he or she believes will have a pernicious or misleading effect upon people\u2019s understanding of important things. To do otherwise would be cowardly and irresponsible." – Leon Wieseltier, literary editor of The New Republic\ufeff<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n \n <\/div>\n

Bigger Than Bambi<\/a>
\n Be nice or else: In an era when literary feuds lack grandeur, writers argue about affability.\n <\/p>\n

View this post on Google+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I'm sure there is a whole intellectual school of review and what reviewing means and the meta-meanings of review that will sniff at what I'm about to say as woefully naive. But it seems the debate between being Nice and being Mean in reviews are both founded on a false premise: that it is necessary … Continue reading “Being Smarmy vs Being Snarky”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106,3,36],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts","category-blogging","category-media-books"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":32233,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/17\/film-review-star-trek-ii-the-wrath-of-khan-1982.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":0},"title":"Film Review: "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (1982)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 17-Jan-13 7:19pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, the movie still rocks. But it's also not that great. But it's still fun.Also, it's nice to see a 1980s movie that doesn't make me feel (ironically) old, since there's such an obvious 80s aesthetic that there's no question that it's from the distant past ... Embedded Link Dave\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":33391,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/04\/29\/because-real-science-is-about-jobs.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":1},"title":"Because Real Science is about JOBS!","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 29-Apr-13 9:47pm","format":false,"excerpt":"And not spending money looking at things that someone else has looked at! Because that's a waste of money, not science! \u00a0(Sigh.)Reshared post from +Keyan MobliLamar Smith, writer of SOPA, wants to strip away the peer review process from scientific fundingHe also wants to favor research that creates jobs and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49409,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/01\/28\/book-review-lock-in-by-john-scalzi-2014.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":2},"title":"Book Review: "Lock In" by John Scalzi (2014)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 28-Jan-15 10:54pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Solid speculative SF, witty banter, and a nice futuristic police procedural. I enjoyed. \u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cf\u25cb a review of Lock In There's a ton of very nice world-building in this SF police (well, FBI) procedural, and part of what makes it so nice is how subtle it all is -- the info-dumps\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29902,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/08\/19\/restaurant-review-black-cat-boulder-co.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":3},"title":"Restaurant Review: "Black Cat" (Boulder, CO)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 19-Aug-12 8:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"Went to the Black Cat last night with Mary and Stan, a very, very nice restaurant off of Pearl Street in Boulder. \u00a0We did the Chef's Sampler with Wine Pairings, so we got a bit of everything. \u00a0The ingredients were fresh and flavorful, the combinations were unique but thoughtful, and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21053,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/17\/book-review-warrior-by-marie-brennan-2006.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":4},"title":"Book Review: “Warrior” by Marie Brennan (2006)","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 17-May-11 9:03pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Warrior by Marie Brennan My rating: 4 of 5 stars There's a lot to like about this fantasy tale. The world-building is interesting (if nothing else, the use of Japanese-style names is a refreshing change from recycled Tolkien Elvish). The magic system and the society behind it are nicely realized.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":32188,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2013\/01\/13\/film-review-the-man-with-the-golden-gun-1974.html","url_meta":{"origin":40077,"position":5},"title":"Film Review: "The Man with the Golden Gun" (1974)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 13-Jan-13 9:48pm","format":false,"excerpt":"On the bright side, Christopher Lee. On the dark side, short sleeves, Sheriff Pepper, and one of the least competent MI6 agents on record as a Bond girl. Embedded Link Dave Hill\u2019s \u2605\u2605\u2605 review of The Man with the Golden Gun (1974) on Letterboxd.com Moore returns for his second Bond\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40077"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40091,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40077\/revisions\/40091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}