Petal Pushing and reviews that draw blood
Hey you guys,
So I just finished reading Petal Pusher, Laurie Lindeen's memoir about her time fronting Zuzu's Petals while battling Multiple Sclerosis. It also answers the question "What's it like dating Paul Westerberg?" with a terse "it's just fine. We're perfectly normal, boring people. Seriously. Like in-bed-at-ten-in-pajamas-reading-"Reader's Digest" boring. Mind your own business". Late in the book, when Lindeen's enthusiasm for rock and or roll is at a low ebb she reads a scathing review of her second album by a mysterious "Jim M." from City Pages that utterly destroys her already failing confidence. The review singles out and ruthlessly condemns just about everything that keeps Lindeen up at night, every nagging anxiety and raging insecurity.
The passage made me think about the effect the reviews I write might have on the people I'm writing about. I suspect that part of our readership would dig it if we included more F grades and "this movie fucked my skull with sheer awfulness" vitriol but I always try to keep in mind that the people behind the music, books and films I'm critiquing are flesh-and-blood human beings with feelings and emotions and moms and puppies and not bloodless abstractions impervious to pain. Even the crappiest independent film or most hackneyed rap album represents the labor of a group of hard-working folks. At the same time I have a job to do and I can't be crippled with fear that something I write will send some thin-skinned soul into a harrowing downward spiral.
Besides I highly doubt that, I dunno, Wim Wenders reads my work and weeps uncontrollably because I thought The End of Violence was a little on the ridiculous side. I have a job to do and so does he. Every once in a long while though somebody that I write about will shoot me an angry email objecting to a review, just as I sometimes get complimentary emails from people whose work I've praised. I try not to let it affect my work.
It's not like I haven't been on the other side, either. I'd be utterly lost if I lost confidence in myself and my critical voice just cause someone thinks I'm a schmuck for liking Freddy Got Fingered. So here's my question for all you artistic types: how do you generally respond to scathing or complimentary reviews? Do they inflict psychological damage? Do you blow them off? Consider them irrelevant? A hazard of the trade? The price of fame? Has a scathing bit of press ever inspired a Lindeen-like breakdown? Discuss.