Good morning, I am the Review…

Good morning, I am the Review.

I belong to a large family and I am sure you know some of my closest relations. There is my brother the Comment, my cousin the Rating, my aunt the Discussion and my uncle the Reading Group. We also have a noble relation, even if he is a bit decayed: the Duke Literary Criticism.

We are a heterogeneous family and, despite my good intentions, I am the most dreaded. Someone says that I have a case of multiple personality disorder, because I can be very sympathetic, helpful, obliging, enthusiastic, but also sharp, straightforward, disrespectful and sometimes even cruel.

My brother the Comment is not treated so badly as I am, maybe because he is less conclusive, he keeps an open mind and he can change. On the contrary, I have a way of giving unquestionable judgement that makes me annoying.

Our cousin the Rating is the family mathematician, he only reasons with numbers and scores. This feature was clear since he was a child because he used to say things such as “Thank you, mum! I give this pasta 5 out of 5” or “Don’t buy that dress, I can’t give it more than 3 out of 5”. He doesn’t leave room for interpretation, but can be misunderstood. Do you really believe that a number can convey the complexity of creativity? I doubt that. 

Our aunt and uncle, the Discussion and the Reading Group, are always open-minded, they don’t reject any stances but they compare and contrast, analyze, talk out until the mere judgement isn’t important anymore. The only thing that matters is pure debate. Indeed, they have their nuisances from time to time, but nobody ever ostracized them.

Can you immagine family dinners? All of that words and speeches! Evaluations, conjectures, form and content analysis, comparisons. There’s enough to go mad!

I am very sensitive, you know, and I assimilate everything that is told and written, I struggle to find the squearing of the circle, the truth behind the words. However the real issue is that everything we say is always a matter of personal viewpoints and verditcs we all take the liberty to split out, without caring about other’s work. That work has an origin, it costs efforts and struggles, commitment and labour.

How many of us tried to go the other way and subject to judgment?

Think about this.