Thou sayest

My faculty collaborator has given me a couple questions to chew on this weekend, perhaps to decrease the time I spend thinking about font colors for the blog, but also to think more seriously about the critical underpinnings of this research. We meet weekly to discuss these and other issues, and writing weekly reflections on what I've been doing and thinking about is good practice for me, not simply from a writing perspective, but as a way of allowing myself to risk a path that might yield thorny, less-than-tidy answers—or more likely—thorny, less-than-tidy questions. I prefer being right.

I'd value your reflections on these questions as well (and I promise not to plagiarize from your comments). I'll add my own reflection here, too.

1. What do you think is the purpose of the art(s) critic in this cultural context?
2. What do you think should be the purpose of the art(s) critic in this cultural context?

If you infer from those questions a kind of good critic vs. bad critic dichotomy, feel free to explore that a bit. I'm all for judgment: as a kid, I would line up the 150+ nativity sets that my father collected, conducting an elaborate, points-based pageant to determine which Baby Jesus et familia had the most artistic integrity.