Author: Kamerman, Jack B.

Publication Year: 1982

Media Type: Book

Summary:

Abstract:

What aspects of your work do you like?

I like being in contact with really good minds. Very often people say, How on earth can you do this job? You know, you go to the theatre eight to ten times a week. That must be terribly boring. And then you find out that they're orthodontists who are looking down people's throats all day, and they say my job is boring.

It takes a certain talent to write a bad play. It takes an enormous talent to write a good play. But whichever way, you're dealing with some of the most talented people that you're going to find. I find that an enormous privilege.

I think I dislike the publicity associated with critics in this country, which is rather different from the European approach. I do find that the European approach of the critics as a noncelebrity is more beneficial to the art than the American approach, which offers the critic as a celebrity. I think this is absolutely nonsense. I can't see how a parasite, even a symbiotic parasite, can really be a celebrity. I think that the American idea of the critic is a little bit dangerous, dangerous to the critic, dangerous to the art, and makes the criticism almost more important than the thing being criticized. (p. 241-244)

CONTENTS
Criticism as a kind of work.
The power and responsibility of critics.
Preparation for criticism and the function of the critic.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Community Development