Let’s get critical

This is a call for critics: the world needs you.

In this coffee shop culture where we are constantly bombarded with inspirational quotes and one-liners, amid this constant arguing over the forced dichotomy of doers vs. thinkers, in this you-are-your-bank-account and Namaste-to-the-world! age, you critics are our modern-day heroes. You get society to look beyond what is and imagine what can be; you question authority and make way for new ideas; you caution us when we're headed for doom.

But you are also a dying breed. These days, you are being told to "shut up na lang" about everything from artistas to Martial Law and the Nazgûl in the presumptive president's new cabinet. But I write you today to tell you that you are not alone, that you must stay strong and gather strength even if the constant chants of "Bias!!" weigh you down.

As we look into six years of exciting uncertainty, here is five-point guide for critics young and old: A checklist for a life wherein nothing good comes easy.

1. Do your research.

When you start your journey towards becoming a critic, your feelings are your least useful weapons. They will merely be the buns to your sandwich — the meat, the filling, the spices, the greens will always be your informed and meaningful analysis. While your spirits might lead you to a “eureka” moment and, eventually, to do further research, whatever your emotions tell you should always be subject to your wise scrutiny. In the court of logic and critical thinking, emotions bear (almost) no weight. (This is what most Marcos apologists fail to see.)

Cycle between reading just about anything you see on the shelf and reading selectively. Read discomforting literary theory. Read “stuffs” you don’t agree with. (Just to spite critics, the “S” after “stuff” is deliberate.) Pretty soon, you won’t have to remind yourself to filter emotions. Pretty soon, your emotions will dictate your research, and your research will dictate your emotions. It’s only then that you’ll be allowed to use that “I really don’t know; I just feel strongly about this” card. And when your intuition leads to a blunder, you can flip that “charge it to experience” card. That way, your emotions also become research.

So, yeah, I don’t think feelings are really useless. Research also isn’t all that.

2. Do something else.

With all the trolls online who are quick to commit ad hominem arguments (e.g. “Reklamo ka nang reklamo, ano na ang naitulong mo sa Pilipinas?”), it’s better to have a reply handy than to entertain their more fallacious arguments. But don’t do sideline for the critics. Do it to be a good critic.

Criticism and production go hand in hand. If you’re criticizing without knowing the complexities of production, then there will be a tendency to shoot blanks. (I don’t think there’s a real ivory tower in our tiny, almost pathetic art scene. People who live in “ivory towers” are simply delusional — at least in the art scene.) Likewise, if one continues to produce without minding criticism, he/she gains a false sense of innocence, a fake purity. If criticism is healthy, production is healthy. (See, for example, how today’s rave-over-every-other-indie-band “criticisms” feel empty. Thankfully, film critics take their jobs more seriously than today’s music critics do.)

What many fail to understand is that criticism goes beyond the personal and is necessarily rooted in and indebted to a bigger sense of culture. Critics are responsible for the maturity of an audience. Now, that’s a tall order. So, yes, I might be wrong in saying that a critic should also busy himself/herself with production. Sometimes, they do. And they end up making crap. Sometimes, artists write critiques and they end up glorifying themselves.

3. Be consistent.

There is nothing more disappointing than a critic being inconsistent. The practice of putting ideas into words is hard, but following these ideas to their logical conclusions is as grueling as a marathon. It is fatal. So harden yourself. A critic who enjoys backpedaling — worse, compromising — is a no-good critic. Leave the doubletalk to politicians.

To be a good critic these days takes a lot of nerve. When you are commissioned to write about something, when you are invited to these grand product launches and fundraisers, you will develop a certain hiya (shame is not the best translation) to bite the hand that feeds you. As Filipinos, this “reluctance to transgress social structures” — anthropologists and historians observe — is hardwired. There is no way around it, not now, in this neo-liberal world. So your job as a critic becomes doubly hard. You are tasked to call out the emperor’s new clothes, knowing full well that it is the emperor who puts food on your table.

Some will say that there’s always a way around it. But doing so requires backbreaking work which, in the end, will turn you into someone who’s more an artist who produces than criticizes. (See No. 2) (See, also, John Lennon as someone who tried so hard to be a critic and an artist at the same time. In the end, Mark David Chapman shot him “for being a phony.”)

4. Contradict yourself.

All said, it is a nice practice to contradict yourself. Now, this is different from being inconsistent. This also isn’t something similar to cheat day. It’s more like research. (See No. 1) It is a practice in openness, an odd sense of humility — a golden opportunity to be your best critic. Remember: An effective rebuttal always starts with “I agree with what you said but…” You’ll find that contradicting yourself will make your arguments stronger once you’ve gotten over that phase. That’s if you get over that phase.

Being a critic is an exercise in EQ as much as it is an exercise in IQ. There is something admirable in critics who make perfect sense when they are correct, and shove “perfect sense” down your throat when they are incorrect. For average folk, they are rabble rousers — they are jerks. But among critics, they are envied for being so influential, so relevant, that even when they know they are wrong, even when they know they are contradicting themselves, they still find their fans defending them. (See: Teddy Boy Locsin, Thom Yorke of Radiohead, and just about all millionaire-environmentalists.)

5. Find joy in being nega.

In the end, you still have to find joy in what you do. Being a critic doesn’t mean that you have to hate the world and yourself. In fact, it is your acute sense of a utopia that pushes you to criticize. Know that who you are and what you do are two very different things (although, they’re also not too far apart); compartmentalization is a useful tool for critics. Try confusing people by being a Dr. Jekyll.

Remember to remind yourself, every now and then, that we will all die in the end.

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Tweet the author @sarhentosilly.