"A sickly sweet as a German white wine"

Apart from the very first word being wrong ("As" rather than "A"), then the reviewer's taste buds are somewhat askew as well, if they apply such all-embracing definitions and overall generalities.

(I do know a LOT about wines, before I get shot down. I am aware that individuals tastes are very different. I have in fact qualified as a Master of Wine and wrong wine references tend to jump very quickly upon my hobby-horse. There was a recent reference to a Margaux in a story which was laughably wrong! A two minute check on Google would have resolved the error.)

I can assure you all that German white wines have won prizes all around the world.
And the Austrians do a very good "Eiswein" (= Ice Wine).

So I can assure you that the wine reference merely indicates a shoot-from-the-hip approach without letting facts get in the way of opinions.

Cheers

Julia

I post here....

...and judging by the response, apparently I compost there.

To be alive is to be vulnerable. Madeleine L'Engle
Love, Andrea Lena

Hey, I liked that one!

And what's wrong with sweet.
They also missed the frighting undertone of "what if this was to go to far".

"Sickly sweet?" That applies neither...

...to your story or the wine. When I lived in Germany, I used to enjoy spaetlese. I haven't had it for years, but I don't recall it being sweet.

As for your story, it was more a narrowly averted tragedy, set in a world that seems like a dystopian nightmare. There was considerable conflict, both internal and external, and conflict is what drives a good story. (At least that's what I've always been told). It makes me wonder just what sort of story this self-styled critic was expecting.

Livin' A Ragtime Life,

Rachel

I think

I think your looking at the review all wrong.

A sickly sweet German white wine.

In essence He was drinking from the bottom of the barrel and was to drunk to brink himself out so he had to stay in a drunken stuper to realize that even he had no morals to base his assumption on.

Hence he vomited on himself to prove that even he was not sober enough to make a valid statement.

I am rather partial to good German wines.....

And I am also much more likely to drink a white than a red, so denigrating German white wines is simply another way of this person showing their a) lack of taste, and b) lack of knowledge. Like any review, you should take this with a grain of salt. There is no way of knowing the reviewer's background or intelligence, and as such, you should simply ignore it as being from someone who has nothing better to do than try to make themselves feel better by belittling another person's work.

The relationship between reviewers and authors is akin to the relationship between engineers and teachers. Those who can do, those who can't teach - or in this case, those who can write do, those who can't review.

My answer to any reviewer who leaves a comment like that has always been the same - if you think you can do better, knock yourself out. If people can't be constructive in their criticism, then they should keep their opinions to themselves.

Dallas

D. Eden

Dum Vivimus, Vivamus

Sure, Shaw

[Edit] Whilst I was writing this, the comment to which it is a riposte disaapeared. If that comment does not return, this post should be deleted as well, since it would be largely out of context. I don't know how to do that deletion, but I hope that the Moderators will act appropriately. Xi

Those who can do, those who can't teach

Bernard Shaw, Man and Superrman, "Maxims for Revolutionaries"

I could add "Those who can see irony enjoy; those who cannot miss the message."

Bernard Shaw - an author and playwright whose works have given me mich pleaseure - can rarely be quoted accurately out of context.

And I would add that reviewing, wnen done well, is a great a skill as writing. It is the part of the Sunday paper I turn to second after the comment on the news (the news itself being necessarily behind the curve).

The difference perhaps is that, as with anything on the internet, anyone with a connection can post a review, and they do. I suspect that most people cannot excel at the writings in which BC specialises - that is a gift not given to all and of those left out only some are aware of their lack. You have merely to look at the limited list of those regularly posting stories here and compare it with the number of users and guests at any time. Many readers are just lurkers, amongst whom I count myself. But far too many of those think their voice should be heard. (Which makes this post full of hubris, and I admit to that.)

Criticism, in the sense that I understand it, can be negative or positive. The word implies a close examination, a 'dissection' if you will, and should address both strenths and weaknesses. It is a different skill, and when well done it makes good reading in itself. (I am not much good at that either; so I usually stay away.)

An illterate and inaccurate "review" is nothing more than a troll.

Xi
(Friend of many teachers, from nursery teacher to university professor; the competence and dedication of all of them leaves me in awe.)

Now to add more fuel to the fire.

I did a search about sickly sweet wine and this was pulled from a wine description. Is perhaps the review saying that it was a refreshing changed from a standard story?

Depending on the type, if they're sickly sweet, it is necessary an acidity quota to provide freshness and to counteract that extra sweetness.

Of course the wine site was talking about having to provide an additive to the wine to bring it's acid taste down.

Sounds like they heard that

Sounds like they heard that comment from somewhere else and couldn't wait to use it.

Ban nothing. Question everything.

Hmm...

Riesling is a little too sweet for my liking, but it is the only German White Wine I've had.
I shall have to try some more. = )

Try a bottle of Gewurztraminer

Try a bottle of Gewurztraminer. It's from Alsace, which is the part of France that's most culturally German and therefore gets the best of both worlds. The wine itself has a delicately spiced flavour, and is reputed to be the perfect accompaniment to Asian food.

Ban nothing. Question everything.

Ooh,

I wonder if the compatibility with Asian food is coincidental or intentional? = )
There is allegedly a Scottish company that makes Sake exclusively for the Japanese market.

Well it's a darn good thing...

...I don't read FictionMania for the reviews :)

Reviewers reviewed

There are reviewers and/or commenters here, whose postings will lead me to look at stories that my limited time has caused me to overlook. I discovered two of my favourite authors, in that way.

There are others - but few of them here - who have the opposite effect; what they like I don't, and vice-versa. Here at BC, even when our tastes are at odds, those reviewers/commenters can give me pleasure through the quality of writing in teir postings.

Co-incidentaly, when I started up this morning, I looked at my fiction-site bookmarks and asked myself why FM was still in the list, as the entry is very rarely used. It won't be there when I close down. Should I really want to go there, I can still do so via BC.

Short reviews are tricky; very short reviews are very tricky and only the best can do them well. Even here not evyone can write epigrams, but the proportion here seems to me to be well above the norm. Elsewhere the proportion seems to sink below...

It would appear that Dottie's reviewer has a literary taste to match hir taste in wine and command of the language. The sort of German wine implicitly referenced is not even up to 'two-buck-chuck' or any jug wine. It is ZwieMarkMÃ¼ller, from low-cost must chaptelised way beyond any sense. Alcoholic grape juice. I often wonder if all of it in the shops is really the result of fermentation of grape must at all, rather than the alcohol deriving from starches and non-grape sugars.

I wonder if s/he likes shampai(g)n?

Eiswein has very high residual sugar, but if genuine is neither sweet nor sickly; if it is sweet or sickly, it is almost certainly not echt.

Um... since when is white

Um... since when is white wine sweet?

Just saying :)

"A sickly sweet as a German white wine"

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Apparently the reviewer don't

Liebfraumilch

Blue Nun

Liebfraumilch.

I looked up that word online

German wines?