Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth

Imagine sitting at an outside cafe on a brisk autumn Sunday morning, steam rising from three coffee cups as you look across the cold, green, metal table at your Uncle A and your other Uncle O. They both super smart, well read, and are going through a sort of mid-life crisis, questioning everything. Also, the only way they can communicate is in references, stringing together literary quotations like a pair of (Philadephia-based) conspiracy theorists. Furthermore, they have been meeting here every Sunday for weeks and still haven’t come up with any solution. But there have been lots of conclusions.

Excerpt from: Articulate Noise — Review of Better Living Through Criticism

While maddeningly all over the place at times, one of the best books I've ever read about why critics do what they do and the function they serve, and how criticism is a process we all engage in all the time. A.O. Scott's argument is far from a straight line and you'll wonder who the hell he is talking to at times or if he's pasted together four other books he was working on to make this one. But overall, I tried writing without a pen and after two chapters, I was already mentally underlining every 5 seconds anyway. Worthy of multiple re-reads, 10% to straighten out the crooked lines, 90% to savor and think about them.