Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty and Truth
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- £7.99
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- £7.99
Publisher Description
Few could explain, let alone seek out, a career in criticism. Yet what A. O. Scott shows in Better Living Through Criticism is that we are, in fact, all critics: because critical thinking informs almost every aspect of artistic creation, of civil action, of interpersonal life. With penetrating insight and humour, Scott shows that while individual critics – himself included – can make mistakes and find flaws where they shouldn't, criticism as a discipline is one of the noblest, most creative and urgent activities.
Using his own film criticism as a starting point – everything from an infamous dismissal of the international blockbuster The Avengers to his intense affection for Pixar's animated Ratatouille – Scott expands outwards, easily guiding readers through the complexities of Rilke and Shelley, the origins of Chuck Berry and the Rolling Stones, the power of Marina Abramovic and 'Ode on a Grecian Urn' Scott shows that real criticism was and always will be the breath of fresh air that allows true creativity to thrive. As he puts it: ‘The time for criticism is always now, because the imperative to think clearly, never goes away.’
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This stunning treatise on criticism from New York Times film critic Scott is a complete success, comprehensively demonstrating the value of his art. His first major assertion is that criticism is indeed an art, and that "a work of art is itself a piece of criticism." From here he moves swiftly, with humor and insight, to show how art works hand in hand with critics' "activity of loving demystification." Scott ties criticism to philosophy, most compellingly citing Immanuel Kant's The Critique of Judgment, which asserts that "the judgment of taste... cannot be other than subjective." He is equally comfortable discussing Rainer Maria Rilke's sonnet "Archaic Torso of Apollo" and Marina Abramovic's performance art piece The Artist Is Present. His most striking observations come in a chapter entitled "How to Be Wrong," which Scott calls "the one job can actually, reliably, do." He states that "choosing is the primal and inevitable mistake of criticism" as well as "the gesture that calls it into being." Included are four "dialogues" in which Scott interviews himself, examining his assumptions and clarifying difficult points. This is a necessary work that may enter the canon of great criticism.
