Critiquing criticism

When you raise the topic of “criticism” it’s not long before someone will trot out the saying that “you should ignore what critics say as no statue has ever been erected for a critic”. That quote is attributed to Romantic composer Jean Sibelius, and you can imagine him huffing out those words as his wife read a scathing review of his latest work to him from the morning paper as he scoffed his breakfast Karelian pie (Sibelius was Finnish, should you be wondering). The thing to remember is that Sibelius died in 1957, and the world of the third decade of the 21st century is a very different one from the world he knew.

Sibelius was venting the age-old lament of the artiste. Whatever you think of an artist’s output it requires effort, time and skill. In a thoughtless second, however, criticism can dismiss that art simply by opposing it. The dewy fawn of creation easily falls prey to the valueless vulture of criticism, but in the 21st century that vulture is pretty damn popular. Our broadcast television is 80 per cent criticism-based reality programming, our politics is oppositional rather than constructive and social media offers everyone a platform to not only self-promote but also criticise others.

All of this is to say, like it or not, that while we don’t build statues to critics in the 2020s, we do give them ample air time. Criticism is central to the modern zeitgeist, so you are