- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Against Aesthetics
- The Unbearable Rightness of Criticism
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- The Sovereign Ghost of Wallace Stevens
- Eliot in Ink
- Larkin’s Toads
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- Frost’s Notebooks
- Heaney’s Chain
- Heaney’s Ghosts
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- World War II Poetry, Reloaded
- Frank O’Hara’s Shopping Bag
- The Village of Louise Glück
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- Nobody’s Perfect
- Elizabeth Bishop at the New Yorker
- Elizabeth Bishop at Summer Camp
- A Critic’s Notebook
- A List of Don’ts
- Permissions
- Books Under Review
- Index of Authors Reviewed
Against Aesthetics
Against Aesthetics
- Chapter:
- (p.1) Against Aesthetics
- Source:
- Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure
- Author(s):
William Logan
- Publisher:
- Columbia University Press
This chapter presents a scathing polemic against calls for aesthetic statements from critics. It argues that while aesthetics is a rational profession for the philosopher, it is a mug's game for the working critic. Writing about one's aesthetics is like a magician revealing his secret or a pickpocket returning a mark's stolen wallet. Most aesthetic statements are of value only if they are vague enough that they offend no one. It is further argued that a critic should have principles rather than aesthetics. He should have tastes, though never at the cost of praising the bad book seductive to his taste rather than the good one that offends it. He should also have prejudices, but not ones that blind him to merit.
Keywords: aesthetic statements, critics, aesthetics, principles, reviews
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- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Title Pages
- Acknowledgments
- Against Aesthetics
- The Unbearable Rightness of Criticism
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- The Sovereign Ghost of Wallace Stevens
- Eliot in Ink
- Larkin’s Toads
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- Frost’s Notebooks
- Heaney’s Chain
- Heaney’s Ghosts
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- World War II Poetry, Reloaded
- Frank O’Hara’s Shopping Bag
- The Village of Louise Glück
- Verse Chronicle
- Verse Chronicle
- Nobody’s Perfect
- Elizabeth Bishop at the New Yorker
- Elizabeth Bishop at Summer Camp
- A Critic’s Notebook
- A List of Don’ts
- Permissions
- Books Under Review
- Index of Authors Reviewed