Is critiquing creative work almost pointless?

Critiquing art is not my favourite. I do it naturally. I think we all do. But I don’t like it. When I’m self aware, I get an icky feeling. Someone worked hard (probably) on this thing and here we are just tearing it apart. It’s unkind.

But more importantly, it’s nonsensical really! Art is so personal. It’s so subjective. One person’s masterpiece is another person’s trash. Some people love tropey stories with archetypal characters in standard, cliche settings. Others want something that breaks the norm. Neither of us is “right”. Neither of us has “better” tastes.

The snobs think they’re right, though! There is definitely a lot of classism in art criticism. Gatekeepers in book publishing decide what is worthy and what is not. The paid critics and awards committees deem themselves worthy to decide on what’s the best. But who says they’re “right”? Why do they get to decide? I might be wrong but I highly doubt very many low income, people of colour with a public school education only are sitting on these committees or in these publishing houses. Well, unless they need a sensitivity reader, or course.

Anyway, art is tricky. As a writer myself, I know how hard it is to appeal to others. I also know how good it feels when you do. That’s why I’m careful when critiquing sometimes. Even if I hated something, and I feel it was poorly made, that doesn’t mean I get to definitively deem it bad. There are, of course, some rules to book publishing. Some standard expectations. But even some books break those norms, to wide appeal, so…

Art is creativity finding a home. It’s self expression’s playground.

Then the question is: when someone puts their creativity and self expression into art, does it then become okay to critique it? It goes from being some beautiful idea or vision to a tangible thing and once it is tangible, does it then belong to the perceiver? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, well, so is art. So what I perceive it to be is up to me and what you perceive it to be is up to you. Maybe as creators, we need to understand that and accept it?

I think Elizabeth Gilbert said that once a book is published, it’s not yours anymore.

She’s had people say that her book resonated with them and they saw themselves in it. She asked in what part, and then they processed to explain something that from her view, was not in the book at all! This just proves that people see and interpret through their own worldview and therefore appreciate art in their own way.

And that’s beautiful. In a way, the art, artist, and viewer in conversation, creating the art together. The art is ethereal and ever changing. It doesn’t have one set shape. A painting today can be perceived and appreciated very differently fifty years from now. A book written twenty years ago can find an audience of adoring fans suddenly today.

Perception is a funny thing. It can never be defined or understood. Even this post will be interpreted differently by each of you! Wow, how cool; how kind of scary!

Lastly, I’ll say that I’ve been thinking about my reading tastes lately and I realised how unhelpful genre and blurbs are to me! I can almost enjoy any genre and any plot line (the events that happen), but it’s more about HOW it’s written for me to know whether I’ll enjoy it. The same goes for films and tv shows. The how of it is more important, so easily defining and categorising art doesn’t quite work. And maybe we shouldn’t be trying to.

Sincerely,

S. xx

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Published on August 13, 2024 23:54
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