Being interviewed by Donald Hall in 1961, Marianne Moore had this to say about criticism:
"We should try to judge the work of others by the most that it is, and our own, if not by the least that it is, take the least into consideration. I feel that I would not be worth a button if not grateful to be preserved from myself, and informed if what I have written is not to the point. I think we should feel free, like La Fontaine's captious critic, to say, if asked, 'Your phrases are too long, and the content is not good. Break up the type and put it in the font.' As Kenneth Burke says in 'Counter-Statement': '[Great] artists feel as opportunity what others feel as a menace. This ability does not, I believe, derive from exceptional strength, it probably arises purely from professional interest the artist may take in his difficulties.'"
The quotation from Burke seems simplistic to me. I think anyone who can struggle toward seeing "opportunity" where others see "menace" is likely to make his or her improvement a little easier, but there's no easy dividing of writers into great and not-great simply on the basis of how they take criticism.
However, Moore has some good advice: read others' work generously; read your own demandingly -- and perhaps hope that others don't entirely follow your example, but rather ask that they also read your work demandingly.
I'll be interested in hearing anyone else's take on this.
RPW
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