3 March 2014
There's been much discussion of literary snobbery in the wake of Eleanor Catton's essay for New Zealand's Metro magazine, in which she peruses reviews of literary classics on Goodreads and Amazon and critiques the givers of 1-star reviews for their lack of readerly generosity.
Catton's argument is that these ratings are the product of the consumerization of literature, in which ratings systems like Goodreads and Amazon encourage readers to view books as products with a responsibility to provide the reader with effortless pleasure.