on-writing-well

Writing About the Arts: Critics and Columnists 197
is far different from the critic who prides himself on hating
everything. He becomes tiresome faster than you can say
"Kafkaesque."
Another rule is: don't give away too much of the plot. Tell
readers just enough to let them decide whether it's the kind of
story they tend to enjoy, but not so much that you'll kill their
enjoyment. One sentence will often do the trick. "This is a picture
about a whimsical Irish priest who enlists the help of three
orphan boys dressed as leprechauns to haunt a village where a
mean widow has hidden a crock of gold." I couldn't be flailed
into seeing that movie—I've had my fill of "the little people" on
stage and screen. But there are legions who don't share that
crotchet of mine and would flock to the film. Don't spoil their
pleasure by revealing every twist of the narrative, especially the
funny part about the troll under the bridge.
A third principle is to use specific detail. This avoids dealing
in generalities, which, being generalities, mean nothing. "The
play is always fascinating" is a typical critics sentence. But how
is it fascinating? Your idea of fascinating is different from someone
else's. Cite a few examples and let your readers weigh them
on their own fascination scale. Here are excerpts from two
reviews of a film directed by Joseph Losey. (1) "In its attempts
to be civilized and restrained it denies its possibilities for vulgarity
and mistakes bloodlessness for taste." The sentence is
vague, giving us a whiff of the movie s mood but no image we
can visualize. (2) "Losey pursues a style that finds portents in
lampshades and meanings in table settings." The sentence is
precise—we know just what kind of arty filmmaking this is. We
can almost see the camera lingering with studied sluggishness
over the family crystal.
In book reviewing this means allowing the author's words to
do their own documentation. Don't say that Tom Wolfe's style is
gaudy and unusual. Quote a few of his gaudy and unusual sentences
and let the reader see how quirky they are. In reviewing