We all hate baseless criticism. Some of us hate well-founded criticism. But how do you take literary criticism from a stranger?
Is it rude to wander into someone’s blog where they have posted something – fiction, poetry, and essay – and critique it?
“If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen.” – Truman
But is that a fair way to look at what might simply be online journals?
Comments (19)
I guess it depends on what the person said and what you wrote.
i think criticism is criticism. if its well founded take it and learn from it, try to see the p.o.v other is coming from. if its not something you take seriously who cares breeze past the criticism.
i do not critique unless asked personally. i am careful not to hurt or offend them bec not every one appreciates the help criticism yields. but i always wonder: why do they post it on the internet or xanga for every one to see and then be afraid of negative comments? when you throw it to the internet prepare for the whole gamut of comments.
but id rather be considerate of their feelings. they are not submitting it to some literary contest. some just want support. and yes, some are just online journals.
Well, as long as it’s in public, you should expect it. I’m not saying it’s right for them to do that though. You can always delete their comment.
This guy who was obviously older and eerily specific with each criticism’s relevance to prior episodes in my life used to comment on my site every few months with something hard-hitting and absolutely awful, just to try to break me down. I’m being vague, I realize. The argument he gave was that he wanted me to be a stronger, more mature person, but my guard was so far up for a creepy stranger that it simply wasn’t possible to view his intentions as something benign.
I think that’s true for most bloggers. You’re going to be more defensive when someone wanders in out of the blue and starts trying to sculpt what you’re doing to fit their ideals. Perhaps an attempt made in vain.
Good question…:)
I feel like the style should let you know if you can critique. If it’s a grocery list, obviously you can’t comment on style and grammar. If it’s a movie review, you can ask for clarification or give your opinion of the review. If they write in lolspeak, criticizing sentence structure and capitalization is useless. I’d look at their style and try to see what criticism they’d find useful, if any. Golden rule applies, right?
i find random stranger’s criticism extremely helpful. If you write something to be published, its going to be read by a lot of people you dont know. If they don’t like it, you wont succeed. If your writing for friends, they wont be as tough. They cushion their critiques. So Id like so strangers to come to my blog and start discriminating me, yea, at first ill be pissed but i could use it in the long run…
by posting things online, one is asking for attention. Criticism is gaining attention too =)
Our blogs are an open invitation for “come what may” How we take what comes is all in the perseption of the taker. I had someone try to incert words that basically said the same thing. It was just her perspection and her comfort level.
It depends on your relationship with the person
If I just stumbled upon a stranger’s blog and they had something like that posted, I probably wouldn’t critique it unless they were asking for advice
it really depends i think
i usually dont critique unless i’ve known that person for a bit
Personally, I welcome constructive criticism, but I don’t critique others’ writing unless I know the recipient will be okay with it.
Btw, I read that quote by Truman for the first time in a Wikipedia article earlier today. Quite a coincidence.
I’ve found it’s always best to determine their intentions for posting: just to do it, for expression, or for critique. Otherwise, people get angry.
My choice to make it public. I understand what can happen. I actually enjoy reading criticizing remarks. They give me something to dwell on for the entire day rofl.
critics and trolls are everywhere on the web
This is a tricky question.
Some people just enjoy being critical of everything, but that doesn’t make it right. It doesn’t make it wrong, either. On the one hand, Xanga is public, unless you set your blogs to private. But if your blogs are visible to the public eye, you should expect criticism. But who said Xanga is for critics? You could really pull this to either side in my opinion. It’s too hard to slap one side on it.
as with everything else in life: it depends.
some bloggers are on here to blog; some writers are on here to write.
It’s all in the presentation.
nope… but i guess sometimes it gets personal. on the other hand, once you post online publicly, you should expect it and just receive it graciously.
an editor once criticized a diary entry on my blog. he got upset that i didn’t capitalize my first letters. =)