Re:Why Did the Beatles Get So Many Bad Reviews?
by chongli on Saturday February 04, 2023 @01:44AM
(#34652230)
Yes exactly. Proper criticism tries to leave preferences out and instead investigate the context of a piece and how it influences other work, how the work was influenced by the context in which it was created.
Look at a piece like Picasso’s Guernica [1] without any context and in all likelihood you’ll consider it an ugly, confusing mess. But then if you take some time to read the history [2] and it completely changes how you look at the work.
[1] https://www.parisupdate.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Paris...
Re:Why Did the Beatles Get So Many Bad Reviews?
by Sakos on Saturday February 04, 2023 @02:46AM
(#34652554)
That's an important point. I don't believe reviews should leave out preferences. They should be explicit, yet distanced enough. I judge games through the reviews based on how I've contextualized a reviewer's likes and dislikes. My favorite reviewers might not like a game, but admit that the things that bother them might not bother somebody else and they point out things that might appeal to people with different preferences.
Re:Why Did the Beatles Get So Many Bad Reviews?
by chongli on Saturday February 04, 2023 @02:58AM
(#34652620)
I think it's important to make a distinction between criticism as a formal, academic discipline and reviews which are meant to give practical advice about whether or not a particular work is worth the consumer's time.
On the other hand, reviews don't need to do that, and the shorter ones don't, and criticism certainly doesn't need to engage with the question of whether a piece of media is at all enjoyable.
So a review can be right or wrong from my perspective based on how well it reflects my tastes.