Dispensing Argument Over Judgment

The new literary magazing The Believer doesn’t believe in the Thumbs Up/Down approache to criticism. “This is the editorial caveat I deliver when I assign a new piece: I tell the writer that you certainly can be displeased with what you’ve read, but your essay should still be titillating and intriguing enough to make people want to go out and read the book to see who they agree with, basically. An interesting ambitious book, whatever its flaws, should still be written about in an interesting and fair way.”