Who Will Criticize the Critics? I Think We've Found Our Woman.

I can see you're all rather sleepy. Here's something to jolt you out of your complacency then.

A critic is identifiable by his mob mentality. Someone eulogizes a book and he sings soprano in chorus. Gone are the days when a little-known playwright from Pattickad is picked up and praised for his potential. Critics today forecast no trends but are there at every book-launch to flirt with the bartender.

Woah, mommy! How'd she know about me and that bartender?

The fact of the matter is that this trinket comes from DailyIndia.com. The article primarily seems to apply to newpaper book critics (an entirely different breed of critic from their blogger brethern), but the author of the piece really sinks her claws in. Check out these tidbits:

• "The critics will lap up the outsider's voice - the voice of the immigrant abroad or an author with multiple visa stamps. There is something dazzling about prose from one whose English is 'inborn'."
• "Most criticism is an exercise in vanity, a bid to showcase the critic's mastery of language than any real desire to taketh from the plot what the plot can giveth."
• "The book review itself cannot be missed. Either they are all-out gush or a nasal nasty."

Please, sir, may I have another?

Again, thanks to Bookninja for the link.