Posts Tagged ‘criticism/reviews’
Denounced
I’m writing a post about denunciation and related matters … and look what popped up in my twitter stream: Ha! -P
Pop will never die – Cher Lloyd
Remember Cher Lloyd? The 2010 X-factor UK contestant I liked? (last mentioned here) … Well, here’s her just-released song Want U Back… Manufactured pop, likeable, with hooks in the chorus. Lyrically, it’s shades of April Lavigne’s (I don’t like your) Girlfriend And why not? Pop based on teenage angst will never die. Good stuff. Good […]
Scrutiny and criticism starts at home
It is my belief that the writer, the free-lance author, should be and must be a critic of the society in which he lives. It is easy enough, and always profitable, to rail away at national enemies beyond the sea, at foreign powers beyond our borders who question the prevailing order. But the moral duty […]
Getting to know your ‘targets’
Via Andrew Sullivan, via Cameron Slater over the weekend, this interesting New York Times essay by Stanley Fish on how public ‘enmity’ can be a precious thing, and ‘meeting your opponents’ puts you at a terrible risk of ending up liking those you criticize. Good writing. But how could Habermas ever be taken away from […]
A trolling we will go … anonymously
Touching on one of our perennial themes here, criticism, anonymity and unpleasantness on the interwebs …in ‘How the internet created an age of rage’ The Observer‘s Tim Adams delivers a worthwhile treatise on how commenters are able to hide behind a cloak of anonymity, making the blog and chatroom have into forums for hatred and […]
Harsh criticism? Or Fair?
Spotted this from Glenn Greenwald re TV personality Chris Matthews … Now, as I replied, some might see such a strident comment about a fellow ‘peer in the industry’ as ill-motivated unprofessional. Not me. I think someone paying attention to the ‘industry’ (like, in this case Greenwald) is obliged to highlight what you see as […]
‘Frivolous’ Palin won’t be meeting Margaret Thatcher
Litmus test/IQ test Little Miss Polarising Sarah Palin faced a wee knock-back in her [alleged] efforts to ride The Iron Lady’s coat-tails … Margaret Thatcher to Sarah Palin: don’t bother dropping by — The Guardian, Wintour and Watt blog: It would appear that the reasons go deeper than Thatcher’s frail health. Her allies believe that […]
Things that aren’t supposed to be said
Following up on my post the other day about deciphering political codes, highlighting how political campaigns sometimes try to imply the unsayable (like ‘Keep Howick White’) … here’s a fantastic article by Gabriel Sherman in New York Magazine about Fox News supremo Roger Ailes dealing with unstable wunderkind Glenn Beck … which relates to the […]
Shaun Stenning schadenfreude
Despite what some may suspect, I’ve never been big on schadenfreude and, as noted, I despise grave-dancing. So … I feel some concern for the collateral damage inflicted as it seems pretty clear the wheels are falling off the Shaun Stenning wagon train. In the last few days several of his former business partners, associates […]
Taking criticism hard
A while ago, in follow up comments to a post A tale of woe … or fevered imagination?, I quoted Lemony Snickett about how reading bad news is the worst way to get it. Here’s a similar thought from The Guardian‘s Jean Hannah Edelstein about why bad reviews rankle writers far more that good reviews […]
Honest opinion
A brief extract from Bevan Marten’s thesis ‘A FAIRLY GENUINE COMMENT ON HONEST OPINION IN NEW ZEALAND’ … (Victoria University) [PDF 400k] III UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES Common to all such jurisdictions is the major tension in the law of defamation between freedom of expression and the individual’s right to reputation. The defence of honest opinion holds […]
The sort of spruiker who gives spruikers a bad name
My hero Neil Jenman shares his experience with an Australian spruiker … Interesting about the tie-up between Steven Fagan, his book ‘Accidental Millionaire’ and Carly Crutchfield. Have a read: Nick and Wendy are a delightful young couple. In 2004, after advice from Fagan’s property group, they purchased an apartment in the western Sydney suburb of […]
PropertyTalk, public criticism and the public good
An interesting discussion has started about discussion forum PropertyTalk in the comments thread of my post about Linking to sources and the Sean Wood case study. Two of my favourite PropertyTalk (ex) posters poormastery and exnzpat kicked it off last night in response to comments from Perry … with some pretty strong opinions… PT moderator […]
Anyone could be a critic …
In the spirit of my recent post ‘Why am I doing this? Muckraking?‘ is this very worthwhile and thoughtful piece in the NY Times from Frank Rich: Confessions of a Recovering Op-Ed Columnist … For me, anyway, the point of opinion writing is less to try to shape events, a presumptuous and foolhardy ambition at […]
