It is wonderful to hear from you, and I’m so glad you liked the piece! I’ve been trying to find a better way to frame the relationship between critics and creators for years, and the way you put it was just perfect. I’m grateful.

“In oppositional relationships between the critic and the creator, the critic is perhaps on the side of the audience (reader/viewer), and is unleashing something in the audience in terms of aesthetic experience.” – I like that a lot and think you’re exactly right. Wherever there are ideas and a love of ideas, there is an energy seeking to be unleashed, but in the oppositional framework, that energy often becomes destructive (like a bomb going off) as opposed to empowering. That energy, used frequently today to worsen tribalism and bias, should be directed toward realizing greater truth, beauty, and goodness, but that requires rethinking the relationship between creator and critic. Your work greatly contributes to that transformation, so thank you for the time you’ve taken to make it possible!