The Place of Criticism in Our Hobby

The Place of Criticism in Our Hobby by Christopher Stevens

Neill’s blog entry of October 14th, “Address to the Richmond CORPS Pipe Show: Crucible Moments,” sparked debate among A Passion for Pipes members. Views encouraging the idea that serious and sustained criticism of pipes and tobacco be given a more visible place in our hobby typically do. I believe it important that we understand why this is so. For only then will we be equipped to fairly judge arguments in favor of the idea.

I am a professional philosopher who has taught courses in the philosophy of art at the undergraduate and graduate levels for ten years on two continents. So I am intimately familiar with the issues Neill discusses in the post. They’re also close to my heart. This is not only because I’m a logician and relish the making of distinctions, but because pipes and pipe smoking matter to me.

There are some common misunderstandings that should be immediately done away with: (1) those in favor of reasoned criticism are necessarily elitist or anti-egalitarian; (2) aesthetic judgments are necessarily subjective; (3) there is no existing body of literature addressing these issues; (4) criticism kills a practice.

If one operates under the mistaken belief that (3) is true, he might well believe (1), (2), and (4). There is, however, a literature. It extends at least as far back as the 18th century with Immanuel Kant and David Hume, two philosophers central to the canon. There was a time when an education in the humanities would have been thought incomplete without one’s having read them. But due to the belief that education per the canon is oppressive because it is critical, today’s student is instead lucky to come across them. Both were concerned to show that aesthetic judgments can be objective. Hume in particular was concerned with the role of critics in understanding what objectivity in aesthetic judgment amounts to.

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At the peak of his powers.

Lasse Skovgaard, Tonni Nielsen, and Mimmo Romeo at the Chicago Show several years ago.

Several weekends ago at the Richmond CORPS Show, I spent quite a few hours chatting with Danish-American pipemaker, Tonni Nielsen, and with my friend Richard Friedman, too, who Tonni mentored in pipemaking. Our conversation was revelatory to me, full of insights.

I was particularly struck by Tonni’s humility. How many 60-year old pipemakers will admit to feeling nervousness about staying at the top of their game? How many talk about ensuring that they stay practiced in some of the more difficult operations in pipemaking? Everything about Tonni Nielsen – from his lean and muscular profile to the penetrating gaze of his eyes, to the luminary quality of his artisan circle of colleagues, to an awesome body of work over a lifetime that began in the teen years of his apprenticeship at W.O. Larsen – evidences a master craftsman at the peak of his powers. Despite all that, I heard the voice of someone who takes nothing for granted, least of all his ability to meet his own standards while continuing to push himself beyond where he has grown to now.

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Oct. 12, 2013 Address to the Richmond CORPS Pipe Show: Crucible Moments

Tonight, I’m going to speak to you about crucible experiences. When a mountain climber climbs Mt. Everest, reaching the summit is a crucible experience. A soldier who has faced live fire in combat is elevated by valor; this is a crucible experience. When a young comic plays The Tonight Show, this is a crucible experiences. Crucible experiences transform those who experience them. Inside them, we face our fears and find out what we’re made of. They are defining moments.

Classical Guitarist Neill Archer RoanI will never forget my New York debut recital at Carnegie Hall. It was a “crucible” experience. I knew that my future as a performing artist hung in the balance. Most of my friends and colleagues wished me well, although I knew some people nourished hopes that I would fail and be “put in my place.” Who did I think I was, anyway? I was told more than once that I lacked the pedigree for the career to which I aspired. 

At 7:55 PM, as I stood backstage waiting to go on, my hands were shaking so much that I wondered how I would possibly find the strings, let alone make music. The stage manager told me that Peter Davis from The New York Times was in the audience, words that amplified my fear. I venerated Peter Davis’ opinion. I would have been lucky if a lesser-known stringer reviewed me; I never expected to be reviewed by one of the Times’ most respected music critics.

This was not the first time I’d played before critics, but like most musicians, I held The New York Times in greater esteem because its critics were thought-leaders not only among musicians like myself, but among other critics, too. A poor opinion from the Times could be a roundhouse punch to a career. Although I didn’t say it out loud, I worried that I could not recover from a bad performance. Standing there, shaking and sweating and feeling my gut churn like a cement mixer, that is exactly what I thought I was about to deliver.

When the review came out in the following Sunday edition, it was favorable. It was thoughtfully worded. Davis did not gush, but it was clear that he heard music that he liked. Over time, I learned that what mattered was not what he wrote, but that he wrote. The two most important words in that review were Peter Davis. In the music world, people consider the source. That’s what thought-leadership means.

My story is a common one. Any musician serious about a career as a soloist goes through what I went through. A career as a musical artist requires not just one of these experiences, but an ongoing series of them. Indeed, the ongoing scrutiny of critics, peers, music directors, presenters, producers, and colleagues is relentless and very public.

In that world, you are only as good as your last performance, and there are plenty of people waiting to take your place. Because the competition is fierce, the entire system conspires against complacency. One of the first lessons any musician learns is that one is not entitled to make a living as a performer. Being a professional is a status that is earned. And one must keep on earning it month in and month out. The fine and performing arts world is a brutal place where predation is not a feature of the landscape; it is the landscape.

Although I am no longer a professional musical artist, I was shaped by my experience. It is how I see and understand the world–art and otherwise. In my frame of reference, there are three legs to the stool: artist, audience, and critics. All three legs are necessary to advance the overall system.  So what does all this have to do with pipes and tobaccos?

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Advantage your favorite tobaccos

I am a nicotine lightweight. Maybe even a bantamweight. Tobaccos with a nic punch can send me ‘round the bend, and that is no pleasant experience. However, it is no uncommon thing that I discover a nicotine-rich tobacco the flavor of which I enjoy.

Stonehaven is such a tobacco. Ever since I was introduced to this blend by Richard Friedman aboard the Alaskan Song, I have loved smoking it on occasion, albeit with no little attention paid to an oncoming visit by “the swirlies.”

To my palate, Stonehaven’s flavors are advantaged by a larger circumference bowl not unlike blends rich with Orientals or Latakia. This posed a real dilemma for me. Pots and princes are my shapes of choice for English and Balkan blends. Their flavor blossoms in their bowl geometries. My experience, however, has been that optimal flavor delivery seems almost always to be accompanied by optimal nicotine delivery. A large distillation zone provides for distillation of nicotine right along with the volatile oils, resins, and sugars entering the smokestream. Obviously, I don’t want to sacrifice flavor if I don’t have to do so. What to do?

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A Blue Chip GBD

Ever since Michael Lindner launched the Blue Chip Pipe section of his Pipe Rack site, a number of rare and beautiful estates have become available. I worry about clicking that link because it seems I can’t get away without buying another pipe from him.

The pipe you see posted at the top of this post is an example of what can be found among the Blue Chip Pipes. I have a number of GBD pipes, however I am certainly not a GBD Collector. This GBD XTRA may change that, however.

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