A friend and I saw a one-man play entitled "Christmas with C.S. Lewis.” For those who love the writings of C. S. Lewis, it was delightful. For others I would imagine it was just sitting and listening to someone talk for a few hours. I found it delightful and learned a few things I had not known before.
For example, Father Christmas (the British name for Santa Claus), prior to the 1930’s, always dressed in green. Then Coca-Cola decided to depict him wearing red to align his image with the Coke brand. He has remained decked in red ever since.
Here is something else I found quite instructive personally.
One of the most famous literary friendships of all time was that between C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien. They had a small literary circle, The Inklings, that met at Oxford University for about twenty years. It’s purpose was to enable them to read to one another what they were writing at the time. This resulted in Lewis hearing The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings chapter by chapter as they were being written. In the case of the Lord of the Rings, the writing took twelve years.
But here is what I did not know before. Tolkien did not like The Chronicles of Narnia which began with the first book, The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe. Why he did not like them is not important, frankly, because it turns out Tolkien was no fan of Shakespeare either.
At first Lewis put away his initial chapters of the Narnia book and went on with other projects. Later, however, he pulled the pages back out and reread them. Through the actor playing Lewis, this is what he said to the audience (not a direct quote because I am recounting this the next day), “I liked what I read, and I wanted to know what was going to happen next, so I wrote the book.”
We all have our critics and the worst one is usually ourselves. We accept too often too seriously the words of others, and at times question our own judgment all together. Certainly, it should be a blend. We need the observation of others to overcome our blind spots, including a common tendency to fall too in love with what we write. This affects editing later making it feel like murder when we must purge words, sentences, paragraphs, pages and even chapters.
As writers, Tolkien and Lewis are very different from each other and yet they share the ability to write in ways they found pleasing, first and foremost, to themselves. Every important writer will have critics. When this is not the case, the writing is likely having little impact in the world.
What a great post . As you point out, at some point everyone must endure criticism. How you respond to it is what is important. It may take time to realize if it is constructive, it can only help. I guess it's being able to accept the thoughts of others in a positive way. The sooner we learn this the better off we are (but I do think this is easier said than done).
To Linda (below). Yes, it takes time. Sometimes years. I think it's important to reframe and restate back to the critic to be sure first that you understand it correctly, and then think of it maybe as a compliment in disguise! After all, the critic is taking the time of day to have and express an opinion about something you did, or created. That's at least something! Now I know what areas of my (whatever) need work. So in a sense, criticism can be a gift if the delivery isn't too painful, or said with the intent to harm.