Vancouver recent annual Word on the Street Festival presented several workshops sponsored by the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund. Panelists for The Art of the Review included:
- Andrea Warner, panel moderator, music editor, arts and entertainment reviewer at WEVancouver
- Andrew Morrison, editor of Scout website, food columnist at the Westender newspaper, contributor to Vancouver magazine
- Irina Kovalyova, review editor at Room literary magazine
- Joni Law, freelance writer for Ricepaper, Yishu, and art reviewer for gallery catalogues
With the rise of online content and blogs, everyone has a review voice, yet writing about it in a fair and informative way requires skills and consideration. The panelists address the issue with questions from the moderator.
Has the Internet Diluted the Value of the Review?
LITERATURE:
According to Irina, everyone has an opinion, therefore it enhances instead of diluting because it becomes a community review. “Write for your audience! The motto at Room is 'for women and about women,' " she says.
FOOD:
Andrew started to write for the internet with a political blog. Then, he decided to do what Hemingway said, “Write what you know.” With no formal training other than growing up in the restaurant business, he did it his way by contacting chefs, food professionals and clients to know if a restaurant was worth the money spent.
The internet concerns him because it allows anyone to become a food critic: Some of it is good and a lot of it is bad. The worst is to accept a free meal for a good review! Whereas an unfair bad review can be very damaging, a legitimate good one adds to the desire of knowing more and forces talents to the forefront. Yet, his guess is that he will probably be replaced by someone whose good writing was showcased on the internet.
ART:
“The internet is good as a place for expression and for public opinion,” Joni says. For art reviews, she needs to know what the public thinks. “With the internet you have to trust your editor, which is different from the physicality of a print publication.”
What is the Fallout after a Negative Review?
FOOD:
Andrew finds it “therapeutic in a way because a restaurant might have ripped off its customers!” He explains that much is happening in Vancouver where, in six years, the city has become one the best food cities in the world. For each restaurant that closes, three open! But, new is not always good.
He does not dwell on reprisals because, in the end, a food critic helps clients spend their money on good rather than bad food. Furthermore, a previously bad review lets him anticipate a good surprise.
Since the restaurant business can be about the game of margins, with high taxes, a restaurant might cut cost and not pass it on. Then, some “chefs are under contract to make crap.” He explains that he needs to make sense of how it fits on the Vancouver scene, or whether the restaurant is just in it for the money. So, there is no point in softening the bad: “Good entertainment but the food sucks!”
ART:
Usually, Joni does not review what she does not like. Instead, she engages in a critical discourse. Because reviews are subjective, she "respects an artist's hard work and the courage it takes to get one own's creation out there.”
LITERATURE:
Reviewing saves a reader’s time as only what is interesting is published. “Although, I tend to be more generous with new writers than established writers, honesty is very important,” Irina says. Her reviewing process extracts the positive first, then draws attention to the negative, and finally reinforces the positive aspect of a story. It is not skewed because she does not review a bad book.
Do you Write as a Reviewer or as a Writer?
LITERATURE:
The writing must happen from the place of a reader. A book must be engaging to the reviewer in order to engage the reader. Being a reviewer is all about the reader.
FOOD:
Andrew always wanted to be a writer. Since a good food reviewer writes more about what is entertaining, he explains that it is up to the writer in him to entertain, not to the reviewer. But, the obligation is to take the reader along.
ART:
Reviewing is more purposeful.
FOOD:
In a 900-word review, about halfway through, “I need to say something about the food since I interpret the food for the reader,” Andrew says. He describes it as a kind of war between the critical instinct and the writing, and something to make peace with every week. “I wonder how some can do it each day,” he says.
LITERATURE:
Some books speak to the reviewer more than others. Since it is very subjective, the key is to find something unique, with extra elements, other than what is interesting.
Sources
- Room: The oldest literary magazine in Canada
- Scout: Scout Magazine by Scout Publishing
- The Word On The Street: National Book and Magazine Festival
- The Word On The Street: Vancouver, September 25, 2011 programming
- Westender: Vancouver's urban weekly
Marie-Claude Arnott - Marie-Claude Arnott writes about topics that interest her, from experience and with passion.
