Posted June 04, 2015
Arthuir Gies lied in his frigging review. That's an objective fact! For you to claim reviews are completely subjective is just as stupid as the concept of a completely objective review. You don't know shit about critique. Any quality review is going to justify their opinions with objective explanations. Striving toward objectivity and avoiding displaying one's personal biases is what is expected of any quality critic. The fact you are clueless about this, says something about you.
Let's take art and a painting for example. About as subjective a subject as one might review or critique.
One's review could be:
1) "It uses the colour blue and I hate blue, so it sucks." That would be a poor and non-objective review.
2) "I generally don't like blue paintings. I don't like this one either, but as blue paintings go, this one is alright." Here, the reviewer is attempting to get by his personal biases. He acknowledges this potential bias and by doing so, better informs the reader.
3) "It uses the colour blue and I hate blue, so it sucks." But the painting doesn't even use blue, so the reviewer is lying through his teeth. Clearly unobjective, because it is obviously untrue.
See the difference?
Now on top of that, even in art, one can talk about the degree of detail (an objective topic). One can discuss the variety of techniques employed. There are any number of objective statements that can be made about even a work of art.
And a good reviewer will strive to be accurate and true, put one's biases aside and do one's best to inform the reader of the various qualities of the work (both good and bad). The better one achieves the latter, the more objective the review is.
To just dismiss all of Arthur Gies mis-statements with a "reviews are subjective" claim is stupid and foolhardy.
Let's take art and a painting for example. About as subjective a subject as one might review or critique.
One's review could be:
1) "It uses the colour blue and I hate blue, so it sucks." That would be a poor and non-objective review.
2) "I generally don't like blue paintings. I don't like this one either, but as blue paintings go, this one is alright." Here, the reviewer is attempting to get by his personal biases. He acknowledges this potential bias and by doing so, better informs the reader.
3) "It uses the colour blue and I hate blue, so it sucks." But the painting doesn't even use blue, so the reviewer is lying through his teeth. Clearly unobjective, because it is obviously untrue.
See the difference?
Now on top of that, even in art, one can talk about the degree of detail (an objective topic). One can discuss the variety of techniques employed. There are any number of objective statements that can be made about even a work of art.
And a good reviewer will strive to be accurate and true, put one's biases aside and do one's best to inform the reader of the various qualities of the work (both good and bad). The better one achieves the latter, the more objective the review is.
To just dismiss all of Arthur Gies mis-statements with a "reviews are subjective" claim is stupid and foolhardy.