On Writing Well ch.18

Summary

Ch.18 Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists

critic和reviewer是不一样的，reviewer是比较大众化的评论，critic则要求更多的专业素养。

作者关于成为一个好的critic和reviewer建议：

1. Critics should like—or, better still, love—the medium they are reviewing.
2. Don’t give away too much of the plot.
3. Use specific detail. This avoids dealing in generalities, which, being generalities, mean nothing.
4. Avoid the ecstatic adjectives that occupy such disproportionate space in every critic’s quiver—words like “enthralling” and “luminous.” Good criticism needs a lean and vivid style to express what you observed and what you think.
5. Humor

另外，好的评论也要有一个吸引人的开头，快速带着读者进入这个作品的世界。

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Vocab

grim, endure, drive

Like the Dutchmen whose point of view he often presents with a grim sense of fair play, he is stubborn; he endures his own bad weather; he drives the cattle of his facts until they drop.

grim 严肃的，忧愁的，沮丧的
e.g. The future looks grim.
[造句] He was grim and silent, and we knew the result was not good.

endure 忍受，忍耐
e.g. We had to endure a nine-hour delay at the airport.
[造句] Though studying math is difficult, we must endure.
endure也有持久，持续的意思，与last意思相同

drive 驱赶，赶走
drive the cattle 放牛