John Simon (critic)
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| John Simon | |
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| Born | May 12, 1925 Subotica (former Kingdom of Yugoslavia, now Republic of Serbia) |
| Occupation | Critic |
| Genres | Theatre, Literary, Film |
John Ivan Simon (born May 12, 1925) is an American author and literary, theater, and film critic.
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[edit] Personal life
Simon was born in Subotica, Bačka, County of Bačka, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, later, (after 1929) known as Yugoslavia (now North Bačka District, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Republic of Serbia). He is of Hungarian descent.[1] The son of Joseph and Margaret (née Reves) Simmon, he grew up in Belgrade before emigrating to the United States in 1941 on a tourist visa to join his father.[1] By 1944 he was in United States Army Air Force basic training camp in Wichita Falls, Texas.
He attended Harvard University where he earned a B.A., an M.A., and a Ph.D. Simon has written theater, film, music, and book reviews for publications such as New York, Esquire, The Hudson Review, National Review, Opera News, The New Leader, Commonweal, The New Criterion and The New York Times Book Review. He also contributes a monthly essay to The Weekly Standard.
Simon was the theater critic at New York magazine for 36 years from October 1968 until May 2005.[2] He wrote theater reviews for Bloomberg News from June 2005[3] through November 2010. He currently reviews theater for The Westchester Guardian and Yonkers Tribune.
Simon lives in New York City.
[edit] Work
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Celebrated for his erudition and longevity as a critic, Simon is equally well-known for his aggressive style.
Reporting for Playbill, Robert Simonson wrote that his "stinging reviews - particularly his sometimes vicious appraisals of performers' physical appearances - have periodically raised calls in the theatre community for his removal."[4] On Simon's dismissal from New York magazine, critic Richard Hornby wrote in the The Hudson Review:
His removal seems to have been political, with a new editor-in-chief acceding to the usual pressure from theatrical producers to replace him with someone more positive....In fact, Simon was no more negative than most critics, but his lively writing style meant that his gibes were more memorable than those of the others. His enthusiasms were expressed with the same vigor-after heaping praise on the writing, acting, directing, and even the set designs of Doubt, for example, he described it as "a theatrical experience it would be sinful to miss." But positive reviews tend to be taken for granted, while negative ones are seen as personal insults. (I regularly get angry letters and e- mails of complaint from actors and theatre companies, but no one has ever thanked me for a favorable notice.) Theatrical producers in particular become enraged when reviews do not sound like one of their press releases. They finally seemed to have prevailed.[5]
While some people loved Simon's reviews in New York magazine and others hated them, many were quick to change positions, depending on what he thought of their latest work. Interviewed for The Paris Review, Simon described a photo taken with producer Joseph Papp who had "his arm around me after I've given him a good review, and [asked] for the picture back the next month because of a bad review."[6] Lynn Redgrave and John Clark were particularly happy with his review of Shakespeare for My Father, about to begin a struggling debut on Broadway.[7] Others have suggested, however, that his negative criticism is mean-spirited rather than constructive. For example, he is known for dwelling on the unattractiveness of actors he does not like: Wallace Shawn is "unsightly" and Barbra Streisand's nose "cleaves the giant screen from east to west, bisects it from north to south. It zigzags across our horizon like a bolt of fleshy lightning."[8] In The Language Instinct, Steven Pinker criticised Simon for reviews that obsessively focus on an actor's physical appearance to the detriment of critical acumen.[9] Carol Burnett wrote a letter to Time Magazine responding to an attack on Liza Minnelli and she closed with "Could Mr. Simon be suffering from a simple case of heart envy?"[10]
Although not a native English speaker, he also is known for his criticism of the (mis)use of language in American writing, and edited the 1981 collection, Paradigms Lost: Reflections on Literacy and Its Decline. He was one of the guests on the PBS special Do You Speak American? In addition, Bryan Garner referred to Simon as a language "maven" and credited him with improving the quality of American criticism.[11]
[edit] Awards
- George Jean Nathan Award (1970)
- George Polk Award for Film Criticism (1968)
[edit] Publications
Simon's compilations of film, theater, poetry, and music criticism include Acid Test (1963), Private Screenings (1967), Movies Into Film: Film Criticism, 1967-1970 (1971), Uneasy Stages: A Chronicle of the New York Theatre, 1963-1973 (1975), Singularities: Essays on the Theatre, 1964-1974 (1976), Reverse Angle: A Decade of American Films (1982), Something To Declare: Twelve Years of Films from Abroad (1983), Dreamers of Dreams: Essays on Poets and Poetry (2001), and John Simon on Film, John Simon on Music, and John Simon on Theater (all 2005). Other works include Ingmar Bergman Directs (1974) and The Sheep from the Goats: Selected Literary Essays (1989). Some of his essays can be found at Broadway.com.
[edit] Further reading
[edit] Print
- Garner, Bryan. Garner's Modern American Usage. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.
- Gilman, Sandra. Making the Body Beautiful. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000.
- Pinker, Steven. The Language Instinct. London: Penguin, 1994.
- Stefanova-Peteva, Kalina. Who Calls the Shots on the New York Stages? London: Routledge, 1993. ISBN 9783718654383
[edit] On-line
- The Art of Criticism No. 4: John Simon The Paris Review interview by Davi Napoleon
- Simonson, Robert. "John Simon to Leave Long-Held Post" Playbill
- Jones, Kenneth. "Critic John Simon Hangs His Own Shingle on the Web" Playbill
[edit] References
- ^ a b Stefanova-Peteva, K. (1993). Who Calls the Shots on the New York Stages?, page 26
- ^ Playbill news article. Retrieved Jan. 28 2009
- ^ Theatermania news article Retrieved January 28, 2009
- ^ Simonson, Playbill Retrieved January 28, 2009
- ^ The Hudson Review, Autumn 2005 Retrieved Jan. 28 2009
- ^ Napoleon, The Paris Review
- ^ John Clark's blog Retrieved January 28, 2009
- ^ Gilman, S. (2000). Making the Body Beautiful, 203.
- ^ Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct, pp. 398–399
- ^ Letters, Jan. 16, 1978, Time
- ^ Garner, B. (1998). Garner's Modern American Usage (page reference req'd)
[edit] External links
- Harvard Crimson profile
- Archive of Simon's New York Magazine theater criticism (1997-2005)
- John Simon - Downstage Center interview at American Theatre Wing.org
- "Simple Simon" Salon.com article by Charles Taylor
- Davi Napoleon (Spring 1997). "John Simon, The Art of Criticism No. 4". The Paris Review. http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/1282/the-art-of-criticism-no-4-john-simon.
