My wife and I spent Christmas watching movies, something we almost never do. One of the films we watched (right before taking in the Kill Bill saga) was Ratatouille from the Pixar folks.
There is a wonderful character in the movie voiced by Peter O'Toole named Anton Ego, a notoriously harsh food critic.
At the end of the film his final review the restaurant run by rats offers one side of how to look at critics and criticism-
"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."
Lovely stuff. And I think it casts an important light on one side of what happens at Stereophile.
I do believe that the work and writing and Stereophile is important to music lovers everywhere. But at the end of the day, we must remember who is creating the equipment that brings music in our lives and who merely writes about it and puts it into context.
My wife and I spent Christmas watching movies, something we almost never do. One of the films we watched (right before taking in the Kill Bill saga) was Ratatouille from the Pixar folks.
There is a wonderful character in the movie voiced by Peter O'Toole named Anton Ego, a notoriously harsh food critic.
At the end of the film his final review the restaurant run by rats offers one side of how to look at critics and criticism-
"In many ways, the work of a critic is easy. We risk very little yet enjoy a position over those who offer up their work and their selves to our judgment. We thrive on negative criticism, which is fun to write and to read. But the bitter truth we critics must face is that, in the grand scheme of things, the average piece of junk is more meaningful than our criticism designating it so."
Lovely stuff. And I think it casts an important light on one side of what happens at Stereophile.
I do believe that the work and writing and Stereophile is important to music lovers everywhere. But at the end of the day, we must remember who is creating the equipment that brings music in our lives and who merely writes about it and puts it into context.