criticaster
[krit-i-kas-ter]
*******************************************
Janet reread the small article in the newspaper. She simply couldn’t believe what she was
reading. It just didn’t make any sense
to her.
“This
is unbelievable.” She said, putting the
paper down on the table.
“What
is?” Asked her husband, Dave.
“This
drama critic in the paper. You remember
that play we went to last night?” Dave
nodded, “Well this guy said it was bad.
Not just bad, he said it was terrible.
I think the word garbage was used several times. He thought the acting was uninspired, the music
was bad, and the plot was trite and predictable.”
“What? Let me see that.” Dave said.
He grabbed the paper and read the review. “Wow.
This guy’s way off. That was a
great show.”
“I
wonder if this guy was watching a different show than we were.”
“Can’t
be. The review had to have been written
at least two or three days ago, and it says the name of the show and the
theater. It’s all the same.”
“Well
then, this guy’s an idiot.” Janet
said. “Maybe we should write to the paper
and ask that they get rid of that guy.”
“Let’s
not be rash here.” Dave replied. “Maybe he was just having a bad day, or he
has a personal dislike for someone involved with the show. Hang on, let me check this guy out.”
Dave
went and retrieved is laptop. Once
everything was set up, he searched for the critic in question. It didn’t take long to find the guy, but he
did take some time to read up on him.
“Oh. Oh wow.”
He said after a few minutes.
“What? What’s wrong?” Janet asked.
“This
guy’s nuts. Everything he reviews is
bad. I mean it. It doesn’t look like he’s ever given a good
review in his career. It doesn’t matter
what other people say, or what he’s reviewing, it’s always negative.”
“Okay,
yeah, like I said, he’s an idiot.”
“No, I
don’t think that’s quite correct. He
writes well, and he seems smart enough from what I can tell. I think he’s just bad at his job. Either that, or he’s just a hurtful, spiteful
human being.”
“Great. So people are getting their info from a
critic that is either completely incompetent, or just hates everything? No wonder people think the arts are dead in
this town. Do people at least know how awful
this guy is?” Janet asked. Dave spent a few more minutes searching.
Well,
since he only writes two or three reviews in each publication, I’d say that’s a
fair bet. He just doesn’t give up
though. From what I can tell, he’s
written for at least a dozen newspapers all over the country. It doesn’t seem like they keep him around for
very long, that’s for sure.”
“Well,
at least that’s something. Hopefully our
paper is smart enough to get rid of this guy for someone who actually knows how
to do his job.”
“We can
only hope.” Dave said, nodding in
agreement. “Otherwise there might be
something to it when people say the arts are dead.”
************************************
It's amazing how we let critics color our views on something, isn't it? If something gets a bad review, people seeing it will inevitably tend to see the bad things, while the opposite tends to be true for good reviews. Maybe people should try reading a review of something after they've seen it? Of course, that would defeat the purpose of a critic, wouldn't it?
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