Steven: That first line of your comment is classic! I agree on the whole critic thing, with an exception where it’s a review and not a critique: if I know the reviewer’s tastes, I’ll follow their opinion a bit more. Good example is a friend in Oz who has yet to recommend a single duff title for me. But then he’s not claiming to be a professional – just a book-lover.

Should we expect all people to react in the same way? Let’s all be perfect in a perfect world… sounds like heaven or 1984. Who cares what the critics say anyways. Does anyone listen to them, really? The only critics I read were accomplished writers. The critics who were just critics were nothing more than crickets in the basement lulling me to sleep.

Now, JRR. Tolkien wrote some priceless criticisms that I found wonderfully written about “Beowulf.” He wrote that the problem with analyzing it, was that as soon as you cut with the scalpel into the work, you kill it and you cease to see what makes it breathe. I wish I could recall the exact phrases he used, as they were brilliant, and mine just a dull imitation. Nonetheless, when a noteworthy author says something about another author, I listen. When some muck luck who can only put together single line criticisms in newspapers says something about an author, and I actually read it, I wonder if I would have wasted my time less by following a Twitter link.

When I follow the writers’ criticisms, I invariably am led to other classic writers who were also brilliant.

Maybe someday folks will remember that the internet is the soapbox to a very large neighborhood. The last thing you want is to have mothers screaming and covering their kids ears every time you approach the soapbox.

My best advice comes from some very hard lessons learned in the business world. If it makes you feel better to type out a hate filled rant then that’s fine. Just wait for 24 hours and then see if you’d still like to hit the “send” button.

Cheers

George