Don’t listen to those people. It’s rubbish. Write it off. Critics have given me too much bad advice in the past. I remember Kenneth Tynan demolishing The Blood Knot in London. Today Tynan is in his grave and The Blood Knot isn’t. I was once told that my play is too specifically written for a South African audience, and that I should write in a more universal sense ... for an English-speaking audience ... can you believe advice like that? Thank God I’ve read my Tolstoy and my William Faulkner to know that by virtue of their regionalism they became universal. I have never benefited from a critic’s advice ... they see themselves as performers at the expense of your work. If you want advice, go stand at the back of the theatre during a performance of your play and watch the audience. They’ll tell you what works and what doesn’t. If I was ever to be a critic ... just for a few months, then I would open every review with this line: “This is one man’s opinion, it is not the truth!” Athol Fugard
"It seems to me that to organize on the basis of feeding people or righting social injustice and all that is very valuable. But to rally people around the idea of modernism, modernity, or something is simply silly. I mean, I don't know what kind of a cause that is, to be up to date. I think it ultimately leads to fashion and snobbery and I'm against it." Jack Levine: January 3, 1915 – November 8, 2010 LEVEL BILLIONAIRES OUT OF EXISTENCE
A good critic explains the art to us, or makes us see Mona Lisa's smile (and only her smile. When I saw the painting in the Louvre, the smile didn't strike me at all. It was the luminosity of the painting. Da Vinci was a stunningly great painter.) Or the value of Duchhamp and Picasso and Magritte (three favorites of mine). At best the reduce the schock of the new so we can expand our understanding.
ReplyDeleteAt worst, they tell us what they think, and so what? Why is what such a critic thinks more valuable than my opinion?
There are two kinds of criticism: the worthy, insightful kind; and the lousy, selfish, shit kind.
The trolling kind is inevitably the latter. One of the biggest hints is that the lousy, selfish, shit kind is so highly associated with them lying about what you said.
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