I just finished reading former National Book Award winner Michael Cunningham’s newest novel, The Snow Queen. Lovely, lyrical writing; beautifully-drawn characters; and at the center, a metaphysical mystery that makes you wonder about the supernatural and whether miracles are possible; still, it wasn’t my favorite of his books; I’d take The Hours or A Home At the End of the World over it in a heartbeat.
But so what? Why listen to me? Read it yourself and make your own decision.
The accelerating phenomenon of first-person reviews of pretty much everything, from books to movies to restaurants to lawnmowers, gas grills, or food processors has not improved the world, nor even provided much truly useful information for prospective consumers of said items. It’s just an opportunity (not unlike this one here) for some opinionated loudmouth to hold forth on his or her own preferences as if those subjective perspectives carried any weight or meaning.
I’m sure the people who write reviews on Amazon, Yelp, Urban Spoon, or wherever believe they are making a positive contribution to world: they’re convinced that they are spreading knowledge and saving people from the terrible prospect of reading a book or having a meal or purchasing an item that fails to meet their own high standards of excellence.
Big deal.
No doubt they’re also preventing any number of gullible souls an opportunity to experience the unknown, the unexpected, the serendipitous, or even the awful, (which isn’t such a terrible thing after all.)
Are we so frightened by our own judgments that we need to validate them beforehand with the opinions of strangers?
Or is it simply that we’re too lazy to form our own opinions without some context or corroboration from the unseen masses?
The conceit is that by researching reviews, we save time and money by avoiding the less-than-ideal; in fact, what usually happens is we spend so much energy reading reviews, we never even get to experience what’s being reviewed.
But so what? Why listen to me? Read it yourself and make your own decision.
The accelerating phenomenon of first-person reviews of pretty much everything, from books to movies to restaurants to lawnmowers, gas grills, or food processors has not improved the world, nor even provided much truly useful information for prospective consumers of said items. It’s just an opportunity (not unlike this one here) for some opinionated loudmouth to hold forth on his or her own preferences as if those subjective perspectives carried any weight or meaning.
I’m sure the people who write reviews on Amazon, Yelp, Urban Spoon, or wherever believe they are making a positive contribution to world: they’re convinced that they are spreading knowledge and saving people from the terrible prospect of reading a book or having a meal or purchasing an item that fails to meet their own high standards of excellence.
Big deal.
No doubt they’re also preventing any number of gullible souls an opportunity to experience the unknown, the unexpected, the serendipitous, or even the awful, (which isn’t such a terrible thing after all.)
Are we so frightened by our own judgments that we need to validate them beforehand with the opinions of strangers?
Or is it simply that we’re too lazy to form our own opinions without some context or corroboration from the unseen masses?
The conceit is that by researching reviews, we save time and money by avoiding the less-than-ideal; in fact, what usually happens is we spend so much energy reading reviews, we never even get to experience what’s being reviewed.
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