Andrea Long Chu
Appearances
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
But I think, you know, knowing my stuff actually wouldn't qualify as like enough authority for this whole historical discourse about needing authority and criticism. And I am trying to develop a relationship with the reader here. I am trying to locate the justification for that kind of judgment in our relationship. I am trying to treat them as capable of sharing this judgment.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
So the kind of authority that I am interested in, if I am to give a positive version of authority, would be the kind that exists in that relationship with the reader.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
It's a kind of, I guess, ethic of criticism for me personally. And also because it's just like, I don't want to, I have had my time wasted enough to not want to waste anyone else's time.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Thank you so much for having me.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Well, I think it's an excellent question because sometimes artists have no idea what they're doing. I do try and find, you know, absolutely everything I can to a kind of absurd degree. And I really enjoy that, just one, because I... I have that kind of archival impulse.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And because I like finding, you know, little hidden gems where it feels like someone has exactly said the thing that I was suspecting they thought but that they hadn't said yet. Or places where you can see it clearly, you know, bleeding into the work. To some extent, the work of the essay is for them, right?
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Well, what I mean is that not that they would like it necessarily or even that they would benefit from it, but just that I think that I can show them what it is that they are actually up to because I don't think they're, for the most part, aware of it.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Yeah, I mean, they're doing all kinds of stuff unconsciously that they don't have awareness of. That's the sort of psychological level. There is also a level that is material. One of the chapters in the book is a piece about the television show Yellowstone.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And for me, like, the most consequential thing about that piece is that this guy, Taylor Sheridan, who created Yellowstone and is, you know, making all of these shows for Paramount+, he signed this, like, whatever, nine series deal with them so that he could...
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
finance buying a ranch that is featured in Yellowstone and which he, you know, even taking away some level of sort of judgment, which, you know, I would not ultimately, but even taking that away, it's like, oh, like it's so interesting to think of a show as essentially a down payment on a property. That's not a metaphor, right?
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
If I say, oh, the show's a meditation on American masculinity, might be true, but it's like, these things just like exist. Like that to me is very interesting. Like that moment where there is just like pieces of just like mundane reality are kind of like poking out of the text because actual pieces of reality do end up in these works.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And so I like to try to find them and see if they can kind of lead me back out of the text.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
I think one of the things that I am most interested in about desire is we take for granted a lot of the categories that we use to think about ourselves, right? You know, the thing about identity, which means sameness, is that you have to have two things in order for something to be the same.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
So there's always going to be a certain level of difference between anyone that I want to have something in common with and myself. And that gap can only be crossed through desire or will. The wanting is part of what the identity is. And to cover that up, as we often want to do, the fantasy of an identity that just...
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
happens to me and that I don't have to do any work to be a part of and that I just sort of own just by virtue of some kind of givenness, I understand the fantasy. I experience the fantasy constantly, right? But it is a fantasy.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Oh, yeah. I mean, I think a lot of art, certainly a lot of novels, is that, right? Is an artifact the sort of, like, fossil record of desire and a fantasy? And I do think you can sort of watch it. If you learn to look in a particular way, you can see the way that desire is... kind of trying to leave the writer, but also the writer is still clinging to it.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Oh my God. Yes, I did. That was a long time ago. Yeah. Oh my God.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And there's a kind of drama to that that I am really interested in.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
It seems like the only thing the critic has to rely on is themselves, and that feels kind of intolerable.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
So, you know, one of the things I try to do in the book is distinguish between the actual crises that may be facing us today, which I would first of all always say are material ones, from a kind of like existential crisis where periodically throughout history and really from the beginning of criticism, there is this fear that the critic is not going to have the authority to make the claims that he wants to make.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Right. And part of the problem is just built into what it is to make an aesthetic judgment, what it is to say, you know, I think that that novel is good or I think that this play is bad. Because it doesn't have the same kind of objective basis, it seems like the only thing the critic has to rely on is... And that feels kind of intolerable.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And so there is this reaching for other sources of authority through tradition or through technique or through moral conduct in a way. And the problem with that is criticism from the very beginning has been asked.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
to perform a certain kind of allegorical work in showing how liberalism could be possible, how it could be possible to disagree with each other and still live in a non-constant state of war. And failures of criticism or failures of authority and criticism tend to augur some sort of political crisis or catastrophe. Right. And how are we seeing these failures of criticism now?
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
You know, we're seeing a version of that now in a very real way, right? So, like, there is a line from criticism the way it was being practiced at Columbia by Said, Edward Said, and other post-colonial scholars, right, to pro-Palestine demonstrations at Columbia, the sending in of the police, right?
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And now, of course, we're seeing the essentially like secret police style disappearance of people with green cards. And it's not to say that like all of these are the same thing, right? But the fear is that when criticism sort of gets out of hand or starts claiming authority that it doesn't really have...
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
And that was certainly what was being said about postcolonial critique or other forms of left-minded criticism that were being practiced in the academy. The fear about that is that it is going to break down nice, good, polite society. These students are behaving like terrible critics. They're not staying in the classroom and reading the book and accepting that...
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
you know, the work of art is its own thing that is limited to itself and gets to be viewed an abstraction and separate from the rest of the world. They're saying, no, actually, the ideas that we might read about actually matter. So I'm going to go to actually try and do something about that. And so some of what I'm interested in is just trying to understand what are the implicit stakes of
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
The having conversations industrial complex is exactly, exactly right. All of this is grounded in a kind of belief that it is... a sort of good ethical thing to be able to take conflicting ideas, right, and not just hold them in your head at the same time, but just hold them in your head at the same time and do nothing else.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
I fully believe in holding conflicting ideas in your head at the same time. It's called dialectics. It's great. I love it. I do it every day. But there's this fantasy in the liberal tradition of like, well, I'm just going to kind of think about everything, and I'm going to try on all of these hats.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
I'm going to try on everyone else's hat, and that's going to make me a sort of supreme ethical subject because look at how many hats I am capable of wearing. And what that spares me is the difficulty, the risk, the responsibility of... choosing a hat. I am all for being able to think through other people's ideas. I tend to think that it's what I do for a living.
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
But the idea that that is like enough in and of itself is, I think, very pernicious. I have written about this, you know, in the context of trans kids and this sort of idea that like, oh, we just need to like...
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
talk and think about it we need to just have a bunch more conversations and then like then we'll know what to do well no you won't at a certain point you actually have to just do something do something you have to choose something and then you have to be willing to bear the consequences or responsibility of what happens as a result so you know the the fantasy of just like
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
nice whole integrated society where like very little ever happens and we sort of like slowly work our way towards like a nicer more tolerant world I think that's actually just a reflection of the kind of like ideological position of people who would stand to lose something if the world changed
It's Been a Minute
Who gets to be a critic? And why are some so "bad?"
Well, I guess I would say they don't need a certain kind of capital A authority. Would I say that the critic doesn't need authority at all? Like, obviously, I strive for, you know, a certain kind of authority in my own work. I'm trying to present myself in a way that says, you know, I know what I'm talking about.