Shot: “I sometimes wonder if there have not been two great disasters in the history of modern letters: the first when literature began to be a full-time profession, with writers like Dryden and Lesage, instead of remaining a by-product of more sanely active lives; the second, when the criticism of literature became likewise a profession, and a livelihood for professors.” – F. L. Lucas, Style: The Art of Writing Well, 1955
Chaser: “[I]n all my years in and out of university English departments I never met a freelance reviewer who couldn’t give a better sense of the average novel in 800 words than an assistant lecturer at the University of Uttoxeter.” – Anonymous, “Who Let the Dons Out,” The Critic, September 2020
