Criticism Free to read
Against the Star Rating
We have reduced every book, film and meal to a number out of five. Something essential leaks out in the arithmetic.
Listen · 6 min
A great flawed work and a competent forgettable one can land on the same 3.8. The average is a lie that feels like information. Criticism was never meant to produce a score; it was meant to produce an argument you could disagree with.
There is a temptation, writing about this, to reach immediately for the lesson. We have tried to resist it. The particulars are more interesting than anything they might be made to mean.
The remainder of the piece is below.
