Criticism As Blunt Force Trauma

John Leonard is tired of Dale Peck. “This isn’t criticism. It isn’t even performance art. It’s thuggee. However entertaining in small doses — we are none of us immune to malice, envy, schadenfreude, a prurient snuffle and a sucker punch — as a steady diet it’s worse for readers, writers and reviewers than self-abuse; it causes the kind of tone-deaf, colorblind, nerve-damaged and gum-sore literary journalism that screams ”Look at me!” The rain comes down — and the worms come out — and just what the culture doesn’t need is one more hall monitor, bounty hunter or East German border guard.”