Throughout the time I spent reading, analyzing, and recording my thoughts on “Better Living Through Criticism” by A.O. Scott I frequently felt excited by Scott’s writing because it lead me to ask questions and make observations about society. I am incredibly interested in psychology so, often times while reading, I got sidetracked because I wanted to brainstorm and learn more about many of the ideas that were discussed. I found the discussion of beauty and preferences incredibly fascinating. I have done a lot of prior research on beauty because I have observed that it is something that our society obsesses over. This reading not only highlighted this observation, but also made me ask questions as it introduced me to subject universal. Essentially, subject universal is when something is considered to be beautiful universally.
This concept shocked me and really made me think because I did not see how something could be appealing to everyone. The writing also discussed how each generation shared preferences. This through me off for the same reason. I have always believed that everyone is different, mentally and physically, and that people’s differences are what make them beautiful. It does not matter how similar two people, or even a group of people are, they will always disagree on something. My belief in these differences is why I felt that subject universal was ultimately impossible. Beauty ideals and trends that have always been present in our society; however, there has always been and always will be people who disagree with what is popular. There were many other topics in the writing that I felt were important, but the one that confused me the most was the topic of criticism. The idea of criticism was present throughout the entire reading, but I felt that I learned the most about it at the end. I felt that A.O. Scott glorified criticism, something that I had never really thought much about. I struggled to see how it was so special because I felt like one person's opinion should not define how good something was because everyone has unique preferences. I felt frustrated and confused because I felt like I was learning what criticism was not but no matter how hard I tried I could not figure out what it actually was. I felt like I was missing something until the tail end of the reading where the author pointed out the question that I was confused about all along. Referencing the point of criticism he asked, “But surely we know what things mean? But we don’t. We have no idea.” This was where I found a little bit of clarification as I read further on and discovered that in order to criticize something we need to care about it. In the end, I really appreciated “Better Living Through Criticism” because, although the reading confused me, it forced me to ask questions and think deeply. I have never thought of criticism as an art form and although it took me a while to open up to it, in the end I have found a new appreciation for it. Reading this passage has shown me the importance of finding a passion for what I am critiquing. I believe that this reading has given me the tools I need to successfully observe and critique literature in ap lit next year.
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December 2019
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