Emily Dickinson Encyclopedia Book

Why would I find myself fascinated by a critical assessment of the works of two critics I'd barely read? Because, dangit, I love great criticism. And I love great writing. Seligman loves his subjects, and that means digging deeply into aspects of their work that he admires and aspects that trouble him. Even better, he makes astute counter-arguments against those who disliked Susan Sontag or Pauline Kael, almost all of whom seemed to fight against the simplest and least accurate summations of their views. I have actually read some Sontag, and been left breathless by the power of her intellect. Kael remains a writer I know better by third party sources - someday, I'll read some of her actual writing. For now, though, I'm fired up, remembering the ways great criticism offers, as Kael put it, "perceptions, for what they tell us that we didn't fully grasp when we saw the work. The judgements we can usually make for ourselves."