“Critics worth their salt earn their reputations by taking on established taste, whether it appears in stuffy form, or – less obviously – as a kind of adversarial posturing. It amused and then exasperated me that, week after week, I was vilified online as arrogant, elitist, someone who was threatened by dissent, when, week after week, I was taking on the judgments of the New York Times, the New Yorker and other mainstream institutions.”