1. Are critics allowed to change their minds? Do such changes undermine their authority? My colleague @Jo_Livingstone & I take up this question in an extended conversation.
2. Among the topics discussed: Harlan Ellison, Anthony Powell, F.R. Leavis, Queenie Leavis, Susan Sontag, Leni Riefenstahl, Sidney Hook's suppression of his early work, @nicholsonbaker8 & more!
3. Looking back on it, one thing I wish I had raised is the cost of not changing your mind. Pauline Kael, one of the best critics who ever lived, illustrates the point, she adamantly refused to rewatch movies, which limited her response to more complex work.
4. The problem with Kael's approach is that there are some film-makers who are growers: their strangeness demands that repeated viewings to acclimatize to their work: Bergman & Kubrick for example. Kael panned most of Kubrick's work after one viewing.
5. This will probably be my most sustained statement on Anthony Powell until I find occasion to write an essay on his work. 
6. Whole exchange is worth reading! I think @Jo_Livingstone & I make a good conversational team: newrepublic.com/article/152795…
