And a post by rpeate

[conuly]

Because I don't want to retype anything, I'm linking directly to my reply.

While I disagree with him, his view on criticizing people seems thought out, so I thought I'd link to it here to see what other people say. Say nicely, I mean, I did promise to be respectful and all.

And I have a question, which I didn't think to ask him directly: How does one know if something is "great"? How can you say you recognize greatness if you don't define greatness?

I don't define it at all, so I don't have this problem, do I? I even refer to Alexander the Pretty Good.

Comments

[conuly]

If she were a great writer, you would've finished at least one book. You really can't judge within 50 pages if somebody is a great author. You simply *can't*. Among other things, people's skills vary. She may have been greater then than she is now, for example. But you don't know. You are trying to argue that you can judge her writing when, as you haven't read it, you cannot.

You're perfectly correct when you say I don't want to "respond to what you've just said". And I won't want to respond until you have read at least one book, the entire book, of hers. I don't discuss books with people who haven't read them. That is foolish, at best.