Page 119 - Aldi Lukman Nurhakim_How to Write Critical Esays: A Guide for Students of Literature

118 How to write critical essays
for being ‘unpoetic’ or ‘merely verse rather than poetry’. This
is wrong. ‘Poetry’ defines a kind of writing in
contradistinction to prose. If the author—not the printer—
chose where each line should end and each new one should
begin, the text is not prose but ‘poetry’ or its synonym ‘verse’.
Even if a work of verse is almost unreadably incompetent, it
remains to the critic a poem.
Whatever word you are about to use in praising or attacking
a work of literature, ask yourself at least two questions. Firstly,
does this word merely say I like/admire/am impressed by (or
alternatively I dislike/do not admire/remain unimpressed by)
this? If it only announces pleasure or pain, consider discarding
it. Secondly, wonder how many other passages of this and other
texts could be truthfully described by the same adjective. If you
need to count on the fingers of both hands, try again to find a
term more precisely apt.
Of course, jaded terms can be brought to life. ‘Brilliant’
actually sounds woefully lacklustre in most contexts but does
function here: ‘Milton’s celebration of God’s light in Paradise
Lost is literally brilliant, revivifying the old symbolism of divine
radiance with images as precisely visual as those that make
Satan’s “darkness visible”.’ ‘Impressive’, too, can be redeemed
by immediate answers to the questions of what impresses the
reader and how; or by exploiting the latent pun (physical
pressure and, more specifically, printing).
Do not, however, be tempted to make weak adjectives sound
less empty by filling them out with supposedly strengthening
adverbs. Claiming that you regard a text as ‘absolutely
fascinating’ or ‘extremely significant’ or ‘remarkably poetic’ or
‘truly magnificent’ will not disguise your failure to identify
exactly what qualities you admire and why.
Incidentally, consider abandoning the use of ‘very’ even in
front of the most carefully chosen adjectives. You will probably
find that omitting it makes your criticism in fact sound more
convinced and convincing.

DO NOT MAKE EXAGGERATED CLAIMS FOR YOUR OPINIONS

You cannot bully the reader into believing that your view is the
only sensible one. The following formulas and all their