When someone well-regarded in the arts dies, he or she usually receives both an obituary and an "appreciation" from most publications. The obituary states the biographical facts; the appreciation is a reverent (some might say fawning) celebration of the artist by a critic in his or her field. Rarely does an appreciation attempt any sort of clear-eyed analysis of the deceased's work; because we so fear speaking ill of the dead, we idealize the person, robbing the individual of complexity.Charles McNulty, who will soon be the theater critic for the Los Angeles Times, manages to go against the grain in his appreciation of playwright August Wilson, who died October 2. By offering a balanced perspective on Wilson's work, McNulty proves that praise is more meaningful when it's set against honest critical perspective. It's an impressive feat; hopefully Wilson would approve.
UPDATE (Sept. 1, 2008): For whatever reason, this post continues to attract a lot of attention to my blog. Sadly, the original piece about August Wilson has been removed from the Los Angeles Times site. Also sadly, since I first published this post I've had firsthand experience in writing appreciations, one for Edward Yang, another for Ed Guthman.
