Saturday, January 9, 2010

Critique, Schmitique: don't backhand my blog...

...with a parable about a woman thinking someone's hanging dirty laundry only to learn she was looking through dirty windows. Instead, do something. Take your light from under the bushel and share it, bare it and make it public. Then tell me about "my view" from your own experience and crushed vulnerabilities, out loud.
"The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand." George Moore.
Moore was said to be the first great modern Irish novelist. Wikipedia cites that Moore's first novel, A Modern Lover (1883) deals with the art scene of the 1870s and 1880s in which many characters are "identifiably real," and banned the book because of "its explicit portrayal of the amorous pursuits of its hero." I think Moore would have entirely approved of the blog-scene, particularly my blog and many like it, for it's reality-based writing.

Whenever I ponder criticism of my own work, I recall Wayne Dyer speaking to this very issue. He says that he wrote back to a reader who heavily criticized his work. He responded by saying that he was "reading the man's letter in the smallest room in his house and was gratified to know he'd have something with which to solve his dilemma in a few moments when he found himself without toilet paper." I'm totally paraphrasing, but you get the gist.
"The strength of criticism lies only in the weakness of the thing criticized." Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
How do I feel about my work thus far? Just today I've deleted a great deal of it from November and early December that was no longer pertinent to my life or my continued growth as a writer. It was mostly pure snark and catharsis. Like vomit, that stuff is best disposed of at the earliest possible moment.

Also today I've changed my profile to reveal more of who I am today. My chanteuse shot profile picture carries with it a far more authentic caption for today's Toni, Woman of Letters. Amidst the honesty that is my life and what I choose to share with others, I am still beaming at the future with a wide open perspective.
"What the public criticizes in you, cultivate. It is you." Jean Cocteau (1889-1963)

No comments:

Post a Comment