At the Foot of the Peak

Every few months, some magazine or other does some “state of criticism” roundtable where they get, I don’t know, Becca Rothfeld or Lauren Oyler or Dwight Garner or whoever to opine upon the value and necessity of criticism as an art form and how isn’t it such a shame that there isn’t a robust critical ecosystem the way there used to be, and so on. These, like all forums in which writers talk how special and important they are, are mostly useless, not much more than special pleading in the face of vast and implacable historical forces. Maybe if we all hold hands and wish really hard we can bring back the Partisan Review days, but I’m doubtful.