Joey.

New criticism is a joke. If there is actually a criticism that my 7 year old neighbor can comment on things in the same way a new critic would, then i dont think it should be worth teaching at a high school level. In regards to hearing about new criticism in The Great Gatsby, how could looking at the words and their "tension" change the way I look at a story? A story is a story and you can read the words and interpret them any way you want, and the story will follow the storyline the way you want it not the way other people want it. Another problem with new criticism is the fact that when you're looking at such a shallow base information such as the text, you can miss the meaning of the novel or become confused in the storyline and in my eyes not enjoy the book you're reading. New criticism might have some potential if combined with other criticisms. In fact it could be combined with just about any other form of criticism and thus create a truly "new" criticism. But what would be the best criticism to combine new criticism with? Would some be better then others? How would a combination take criticizing to a whole new level?