August 20, 2004

Reviewese OK, I'm a book reviewer. But I swear I have used no more than two of these horrible buzzwords and fashionable phrases. Ever.

Nor will I ever use the words "limn" or "liminal". Any favourites to add to the list, people?

posted by Wolof 20 years ago
  • I'm a book reviewer. Now I understand.
  • 'limn' was the answer to the last clue in a cryptic crossword I did recently. I never got it at the time. /non-sequitor
  • Suggest adding "seamless"; also, "luminous prose" unless applied to an arsonist.
  • My guess is that when someone invented those phrases they were stunning for a moment. So, you're a brght lad who might be able to originate some which might be tomoorow's cliches. Or, maybe try a direct approach?
  • I invented the word "un-music" when reviewing a Black Dice CD for my college newspaper. I was perversely proud when Plan B used it in a review of the Boredoms. Even though I had already deleted it from the review for being silly and pretentious.
  • "A pumping, action-packed powerhouse of a movie!"
  • One of our reviewers just called the new R Kelly album a "pederasterpiece".
  • Should be: "pederasterpiss"
  • Quite possibly. We only gave it one star. The entire review was, basically, nonce jokes.
  • Off the back of my Baburnama, closest book: - highly personal memoir - vivid and extraordinarily detailed picture of life in - honest and intimate chronicle - no historical precedent - sparkling new translation Those are all in two sentences. On the front, the New York Times Book Review calls it "One of the classics of world literature". Personally, I think getting irritated at cliches is kind of old hat, knowwhutImean? Been done. Yesterday's news. Fish in. *goes back to sleep*
  • My boss told me that I 'write like a dream'. Oh, no wait - 'as if even you were asleep'. That was it.
  • I'd like to add "uproarious" -- on principle, I put anything a reviewer calls "uproarious" back on the shelf. Quite possibly the most annoying cutesy-poo word ever.
  • "Masterful!" "Penetrating insights" "A stunning tour de force"
  • Any 'attempt' to 'compare' the 'work' of one 'writer' to 'another' should be 'avoided', along with any 'allusion' to 'metaphor' or 'simile'. Eschew 'adjectives'. Skimp on 'verbs'. Or you could just tell us all to bugger off.
  • Whew! I want to launch my own web site one of these days - a book review site - and I was SO relieved to get through this list without finding anything I've used in the dozen or so reviews I've written so far.
  • tour de force I swear I see that phrase every three or four fiction books I pick up. It didn't mean anything the first time it was used, it means even less now that it can be used to describe something as interesting as denture adhesive. Insightful It’s a book. If it wasn’t insightful it would be a screenplay. My advise for review writers is to remember that adjectives and adverbs are used to modify the nouns or verbs you are using to describe something. They don't describe anything themselves, so use them sparingly.
  • I wish more reviews called things fucking shit, to be honest.
  • "elegiac"