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World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

newstatesman.com

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Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#21
post #15

I went and looked at the Tiktoks. As far as I can see from the few videos I've watched it's not so much "criticism" as "plot overview, small background details, and what I liked about it". It's kind of weird it's being framed as a tiktok sensation when there's nothing to really differenciate him from other booktokers? Other than perhaps more subscribers than usual. Also, per the article: > Edwards champions BookTok a…

You misunderstand the nature of newspapers. Playing devil's advocate just a little here, I absolutely can see the financial benefit of an author taking a single epitome out of a group of near clones, even a random one among them at that, and placing him right on top of a pedestal positioned just before a podium. The more details the audience drowns in, no matter how truthful, the more you simply clutter your narrative with unfortunate facts and drown out the whole point. I'm not saying the author is lying, nor advocating it. But sometimes a slice of the truth is more useful than the whole pi of it in a given moment for a given story.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#23

[flagged]

>on YouTube, has 1.5 million subscribers and 158 million views

There are 8 billion people on this Earth. It is an extraordinary claim to say that a channel with 1.5 million subscribers is the "world's most powerful" in its niche.

Unless, and much more likely, this is clickbait and by world only USA, or the Western world at best, is considered; of those, only the terminally-online that seek literary criticism on TikTok.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't post snark to HN threads. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (I felt the same way when I read this paragraph and the one about Jack being a target of abuse but I couldn’t resist an opportunity to ‘dang’ a ‘dang’ thread. At the same time it is touching how Jack has forged some semblance of a real world community out of this. I still can’t take what he does ser…

Backseat moderation is also against the guidelines.

Oh, the irony.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please don't post snark to HN threads. This is in the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (I felt the same way when I read this paragraph and the one about Jack being a target of abuse but I couldn’t resist an opportunity to ‘dang’ a ‘dang’ thread. At the same time it is touching how Jack has forged some semblance of a real world community out of this. I still can’t take what he does ser…

Backseat moderation is also against the guidelines.

It's always amusing that you cannot tell people this rule without in fact breaking it yourself.

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#27
post #4
post #2

I expected that to be a hit job but it's actually rather poignant.

poignant? > His next major growth spurt came when his university career ended. When Oxford University rejected his master’s application in 2020, Edwards posted a video of himself crying, entitled “oxford university rejected my masters application… (sorry this video is sad)”. Social media rewards confession. Authenticity, sincerity and vulnerability were important – more important than orthodox intellectual baubles. I…

[deleted]

Re: World’s most powerful literary critic is on TikTok

#30

influence ≠ powerful I admit if you are permanently only this might blend together.

Second definition of power on Google: "the capacity or ability to direct or influence the behavior of others or the course of events." Influence is a reasonable part of the definition.
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