Jeffrey Carduner, Aesthetic Realism consultant, writes:

The new issue of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known will move and inspire you. “Real Criticism Is Love for the World” is its bold title. And you’ll see how true—and urgent for our lives—is the statement which is that title! This TRO describes richly and deeply what authentic criticism is, in the fields of both art and life—how it’s always about the seeing of true value. And you’ll learn about what in the human self (including our own) is against seeing real value. Central to this issue is the magnificent understanding of one great critic by another: the understanding of William Hazlitt by Eli Siegel! Do not miss the current number—so needed right now—of The Right of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known.

The commentary by Ellen Reiss begins:

We publish here the conclusion of the 1970 lecture by Eli Siegel that we’ve been serializing: Hazlitt Tells of Criticism. And lest anyone, seeing the title, should think this talk is about literary criticism in some remote-from-life way—I assure you that it is as much of you as your own hopes are. It’s alive with needed knowledge for everyone.

Essayist and critic William Hazlitt lived from 1778 to 1830, and Mr. Siegel makes that writer’s seeing and feeling come close to us. He shows Hazlitt’s tumult (which had a grandeur to it), and he shows the big matter that was driving Hazlitt. These become almost tangible for us, so living are they.

The criticism Mr. Siegel speaks of is, certainly, literary criticism—but is not that alone, because criticism goes on in us every moment of our lives. We have, all the time and usually without being aware of it, the question of how to value things: how good or not good are they. I’ve quoted Mr. Siegel’s informal description: a true critic is one who “makes a good thing look good, a bad thing look bad, and a middling thing look middling.”… Read more