I see a place for critics. Everyone has a daily ongoing inner conflict over all sorts of values including artistic ones and it becomes important to resolve these questions. If a reviewer offers an opinion it can be of assistance to hold them against yours and thus work out whose views you will read and whose we will discard.
Many writers can be short-circuited by reading just the beginning and the end. They work on the principle of the need to grab the audience with a great start and can often reverse their opinions in the last paragraph. A deadly giveaway that the middle is not worth reading. Then there are the ones whose name tells you not to waste your time reading then at all.
I'm not paranoid..I know you all hate me. :)
|