Literary criticism is not about trashing other people's intellectual effort

Literary appreciation, in simple terms, is the art of 'tasting' or 'judging' a novel, a play, a short story, a poem or any other work that artistically deploys language. [iStockphoto]

We live in interesting times, a period in which almost everything in political and national discourse is reduced to low-level biases, ranging from tribe to personal weaknesses, amplified to put down, embarrass or belittle one's perceived adversaries. It is unfortunate that this fallacious streak has percolated into the arts, where writers are now trashed through low-brow lenses rather than through careful analysis or close reading of their texts.

Today, if you review a book and cast it in a positive light, you risk being gaslighted for doing public relations, perhaps on grounds unrelated to the merits of the work. By the same unfortunate token, those who write trashy things about great writers are lionised as quintessential literary critics.