In The English Critic, schoolmaster Norman Clay argued that the ordinary person is too ready to doubt his own judgment when presented with expert opinion in literary reviews. This has had a very unwholesome effect on journalists, encouraging them to despise their readers and to believe that critics are more important than the authors whose works they are reviewing.

The reading public can and should challenge the authority of the expert, said Clay, but must do so from a position of strength. Our best course is to revisit the great literary critics of the past, study their judgments and refine our taste. In this way, we will learn to weigh and even appreciate modern criticism all the better.

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