reviewing

I am thinking about reviews: what their value is and what is interesting about writing them and reading them.

I don’t often read reviews, unless a friend has written one, which I then read to read my friend more than to find out about a book or movie or whatever.

I scan Rotten Tomatoes for the average ratings, but I don’t believe this is entirely an accurate guide. It has happened that movies rated highly there have not impressed upon me greatly, and sometimes movies rated poorly have been profound for me.

My personal, sometimes obscure, curiosity and interest in checking something out is usually more rewarding. Otherwise, I go on the recommendations of friends - particularly for music.

A reviewer who is paid to write reviews can be at a disadvantage. I think that if I were being paid to rate the books, movies and recordings that I read, watch and listen to, that I would be struggling to experience these things in a natural way. If I approach something with a measuring, judgmental and critical mind, then my experience is more superficial.

What is interesting to me always is less the standard criteria for judging, and more the way it, whatever it is, affects me, which can be sometimes entirely unexpected and also sometimes inobvious, inexplicable and mysterious. Writing from such a state, or about such an experience in relation to the thing that triggers it, can be more rewarding and of interest to me, whether it is I or someone else who writes “reviews” like this.

The writing is the thing.