Thank You to Our Critics
“I would
rather be attacked than unnoticed. For the worst thing you can do to an author
is to be silent as to his works.”
It’s Thanksgiving time, and we’d
like to be thankful for a group that is rarely appreciated: critics. In the
ocean that is the Literary World, some say that the critics are the sharks. Or the barracuda. I prefer to think of them as Killer Whales: massive, frightening and
deadly, but also magnificent. And perhaps trapped in the cages of universities
and writing programs.
Being a critic has helped many writers start their careers or supplement their incomes. I’d
like to recognize some great authors who have also been professional critics,
with perhaps some of the most vitriolic writing:
T.S. Elliot, who was a literary theorist and published multiple
essays and books on literature.
Edgar Allen Poe, who edited Southern Literary Messenger, one of the first American literary magazines.
Alexander Pope, whose lambasting of Thomas Shadwell in The
Dunciad has become one of our most loved poems.
So, thank you critics, for your hard and often-unappreciated work.
-Philip LaMaster