It’s kind of staggering how many people don’t understand what literary criticism is. Everything is just tribalism and fandom (or haters).
EMILY WILSONThe oddest thing about the response to this essay is people who say it’s “personal”. You can disagree about some or all of it! I may well be wrong! But it’s not “personal” to analyze a film or other work of art, even negatively. Criticism is more than “Hurray!” or “Hiss!”