So, basically, literary criticism is the fine art of using literature for something else than its intended purpose. It's like trying to critique a bunch of runway models on the basis of IQ. I'm sure some of them are quite intelligent, but that's not what they're there for. They're there to be *pretty*. So you evaluate them in terms of *prettiness*.
Oh, disagree, disagree.
I concede that a lot of what passes for literary criticism isn't lit crit at all, just academic self-pleasuring. ("Loooook at meeeeeeee, I can see where Austen went wrong!" Ugh. I read a preface to Mansfeild Park -- in a Penguin edition, no less! -- which apparently to read the novel without absorbing any real sense of the characters or why they made the choices they did.) But real lit crit is incredibly useful and fascinating. Many canon authors wrote in a cultural shorthand which is now more or less extinct, and it's important to peel away pretention and the knowledge it's good (Everybody says so! It must be!) in order to find out why a text is actually, well, good.
Of course, I should read Monette's article myself... I might be responding to something you're not really talking about. (Darn English langauge.)
I love your summation of a cover letter! And yes, I figure agents and editors deserve more pity than scorn... especially after reading submissions to Miss Snark.
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Date: 2007-01-17 08:34 am (UTC)Oh, disagree, disagree.
I concede that a lot of what passes for literary criticism isn't lit crit at all, just academic self-pleasuring. ("Loooook at meeeeeeee, I can see where Austen went wrong!" Ugh. I read a preface to Mansfeild Park -- in a Penguin edition, no less! -- which apparently to read the novel without absorbing any real sense of the characters or why they made the choices they did.) But real lit crit is incredibly useful and fascinating. Many canon authors wrote in a cultural shorthand which is now more or less extinct, and it's important to peel away pretention and the knowledge it's good (Everybody says so! It must be!) in order to find out why a text is actually, well, good.
Of course, I should read Monette's article myself... I might be responding to something you're not really talking about. (Darn English langauge.)
I love your summation of a cover letter! And yes, I figure agents and editors deserve more pity than scorn... especially after reading submissions to Miss Snark.