This is a mixed bag of Lewis’ essays and other short pieces on the
general topic of fiction, including nine pieces that have previously been
collected and eleven that have not. It includes his original reviews of
The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings, reviews of
works by Charles Williams, H. Rider Haggard, and
George Orwell, a tribute to Dorothy L. Sayers,
and a variety of ruminations on the importance of story in fiction, the
difference between novels and romances, and advice on Which Books Not To
Review. As always, his words are a delight to read, and gave me much
food for thought.
I could easily quote at length from any of the pieces in this book; I’ll
settle for his advice on Which Books Not To Review, because it’s so
topical. If you’ll look back a month or so, the publication of
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix triggered a number of
articles about how the popularity of Harry Potter was a sign of infantilism
and bad judgement among the reading public. These essays were soundly fisked all around and about the Blogosphere at the time; and it was with a sense of wonder
that I realized that all of those fiskings could have been replaced (and
all the original articles prevented) by the following quote from
Lewis’ essay “On Science Fiction”:
For I am convinced that good adverse criticism is the most difficult
thing we have to do. I would advise everyone to begin it under the most
favourable conditions: this is, where you thoroughly know and heartily
like the thing the author is trying to do, and have enjoyed many books
where it was done well. Then you will have some chance of really showing
that he has failed and perhaps even of showing why. But if our real
reaction to a book is “Ugh! I just can’t bear this sort of thing,” then
I think we shall not be able to diagnose whatever real faults it has. We
may labour to conceal our emotion, but we shall end in a welter of
emotive, unanalysed, vogue-words–“arch”, “facetious”, “bogus”,
“adolescent”, “immature”, and the rest. When we really know what is
wrong we need none of these.
The View from the Foothills 
So essentially the message is that unless you know your subject, keep your mouth shut?
Sounds like good advice except where the review is of a book that is read to learn something–like a history or biography. Then the question is “Did the author teach me anything” which is a different question than “what did I think of this book.”
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Lewis was speaking specifically of fiction, of course; and in particular why so many critics of they day put their feet in their mouths when “reviewing” science fiction.
Non-fiction is a whole different ball of snakes.
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Thanks for the great quote. I wrote some thoughts on the purpose of negative reviews some weeks ago on my (badly in need of updating) blog, Brandywine Books. While I’m still an amateur, meaning that I don’t know nothing about being no critic, I couldn’t see the lasting value in a negative review, especially from the more widely read and respected literary critics. Silence seems more condemning than a full article on why we shouldn’t read the subject of the article.
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