Criticism

Posted on July 11, 2004 in Culture

Criticism is tough, perhaps harder on the giver than it is on the receiver. This is due to the fact that many people take criticism as an attack. As a rule, I do not criticize institutions or works that I do not feel are worthwhile. This is why you see my political commentary limited to Tuesdays and Fridays. This is why you see very little direct criticism of George W. Bush and much more about the American mindset that makes him possible. George W. Bush is expendable. The country and its people are not.

But I’ve left my main point. Criticism grinds on those who give it the hardest because of bad attitudes that many people carry concerning it. They want to be told how great it already is. They do not want to exert further effort. Sometimes it is because they are tired. Sometimes it is because they’ve heard nothing but praise. Sometimes it is because they misidentify arguments for which they have no good answer as hostile and mean. Sometimes it is because they have bought into the Randenoid myth that great people do it all by themselves and owe no one else anything.

I think this accounts for much of the resistance we run into when we deliver criticism to certain creative personalities. Call it the Frank Lloyd Wright syndrome. There’s no denying that Wright excited the imagination with his Prairie Style houses. On the other hand, his stubbornness and refusal to listen to others because of the adulation of his syncophants led to serious deficiencies in his buildings. Wright rejected the criticisms of knowledgeable engineers and other architects who told him that there were weaknesses in his designs. Today, Falling Water is falling down. It’s a damn good thing that Wright never got to build his mile tall tower in Chicago. Think of the collapse of the WTC without the airplanes.

Wright deserved good criticism because his work was undeniably worthy. But he stands as less than a genius because of his own hubris. Thinking against ourselves is the hardest thing any of us can do. But it is even harder to be an honest and worthy critic because of the sensitivity of many creators.

I think you can go too far the other way and I have seen many people destroy good work because they listened too much to others. But I have seen good works destroyed in the early stages by praising them as works of genius, too. Syncophants teach a bad lesson to those they adore: that their work is flawless. Such admiration makes many a Wright house expensive to maintain and, in some cases, dangerous for the inhabitants.

The receiver of criticism must learn to distinguish between jealous attacks and advice calculated to improve on his work. Wright saw these as one and the same. His houses suffered for it. When I go to critique groups, I also realize that not every piece of advice is doable, that some of it comes from a place that is simply not in sympathy with the work. This is a third stream of criticism, one that I have come to recognize as not malign but necessary to distinguish from the best advice. Often, the categories of advice mix in one person, though I seldom find jealousy mixed with truely compassionate and understanding advice. When I do see that, I walk and I advise others to walk, too.

But we must remember that not everyone who offers us inapplicable advice is against us. The signs of such a person are respect and courtesy. They allow you to succeed. They know that the work is not you. They know that the goal is improving the work and their criticisms are directed at that.

Between the artist and a good critic exists a relationship of love, an eagerness to understand and to improve on the creation. The sick artist believes in perfection, the mature artist the humanity of her or his work. This is why some of us take ourselves so bitterly seriously and why others of us can laugh at our mistakes. It’s the difference between the false or crippled artist — the Nietzschean, Randenoid ubermensch — and the true artist, the synthesizer of culture, the man or woman who creates through inclusive love.

The true artist knows that constructive criticism affirms her or his work. And he/she strives to make good critics feel at home and valued, even though he/she does not take all their advice.