Critical Attrition

In fact, all the reviews from his Longreads and Reallylongreads have been like this recently, claiming to be about one thing only to be about something else — usually Sally Rooney, Ben Lerner, and Rachel Cusk, along with some kind of cultural crisis.

The contemporary reader is unhappy. What troubles him? It’s the critics: they are lying to him. He encounters them on the back cover of every new book, promising the world. “An exhilarating debut, poignant and thrilling” . . . “A much-anticipated return, necessary and trenchant” . . . “Dazzling sentences” . . . “An unforgettable voice” . . . “Words that will rend your garments and kiss you on the mouth, that’s how good they are!” The reader trusts the critics. He buys the book. But from page one it is trash: listless, forgettable, unnecessary. He is outraged! He thought false advertising was…

related reading

• Like This or Die, by Christian Lorentzenharpers.org
• The NYT Book Review Is Everything Book Criticism Shouldn't Becurrentaffairs.org
• Is the Internet Making Culture Worse?—Asteriskasteriskmag.com
• A Golden Age? | Vinduet.novinduet.no
• I Want a Critic | Andrea Long Chu, Merve Emre | The New York Review of Booksnybooks.com
• The Decline of Book Reviewing, by Elizabeth Hardwickharpers.org
• Literary Hub >> Winning the Game You Didn’t Even Want to Play: On Sally Rooney and the Literature of the Poselithub.com
• Star Struck – Bookforum Magazinebookforum.com
• The Cultural Decline of Literary Fictionoyyy.substack.com
• Two Roads for the Literary Critical Elitemetropolitanreview.org
• Book critic Merve Emre is the most divisive name in the literary worldbusinessinsider.com
• A Critic’s Manifesto | The New Yorkernewyorker.com