Learned Fool: Worst Comment In Bad Criticism

Learned Fool: Worst Comment In Bad Criticism:

ashowaday:

gailsimone:

pinja:

gailsimone:

“It added nothing to the story.”

ALWAYS cracks me up. :)

It’s a legitimate criticism if concentrating on something irrelevant means a lack of focus on something that needs the page time (Or screen time on TV).

Given the extremely limited page time and slow release of…

All of those complaints can be valid. Never have seen the original comment I mentioned be correct, ever.

I doubt “it added nothing to the story” is a comment that, by itself, could ever be correct. Obviously, if something is part of a story, then it’s adding something to the story. I think the problem is that people mean to say that they feel something didn’t add to their enjoyment of the story, or was distracting and unimportant to them, but they don’t explore how. So that’s not really criticism, it’s just using shorthand to discuss how you feel.

What I also hate to see is someone accuse something of being “stupid,” then offer no explanation of what this is supposed to mean. Really, all it indicates is that the critics/fans feel that they’re too smart to enjoy the thing they’re reading/watching/consuming. But if critics are going to decide that their main thesis is that they’re too good for the things they’re supposed to be analyzing, they probably shouldn’t be critics at all…

Yeah, if the critic is that invested in the idea that people should dislike what they dislike, I stop reading.

I like a nice review, I like a bad review, they are both entertaining and even illuminating at times. But there are a couple silly hackneyed catchphrase criticisms that do send me in a spiral up the wall…can’t help it, bad writing is bad writing.