Why We Need Real Critics

Jacob Silverman recently complained that people who write about books online, be it on social media sites or on their own blogs, are simply too nice. The 'epidemic of niceness', he says, has created a digital mutual appreciation society, in which the absence of real, honest criticism has done great harm. Dwight Garner, himself a critic, made what he called "a critic's case for critics who are actually critical," and a plea to end the epidemic. Money quote:

The sad truth about the book world is that it doesn’t need more yes-saying novelists and certainly no more yes-saying critics. We are drowning in them. What we need more of, now that newspaper book sections are shrinking and vanishing like glaciers, are excellent and authoritative and punishing critics — perceptive enough to single out the voices that matter for legitimate praise, abusive enough to remind us that not everyone gets, or deserves, a gold star.