For most people, `sublimation' is a Freudian term meaning the conversion of unacceptable impulses into more `civilised', hopefully more fruitful, expressions. For the life of me, I couldn't see what its meaning could be as used by Will. My simple question was then answered by citing two more critics who, so far as we are told, may not use the word at all. Matt's question may be laden with wisdom but to me it just sounded like a rather smartypants put-down. And my response to it was a plain reiteration of what most people understand as the difference between art & criticism. That is to say, the difference between the doing & the commenting upon the doing. Will's question about my reading habits sounds as if it were from the same stable. He must have guessed by now how I regard the work of professional critics - as purely parasitic. I would never wish to encourage such unwholesome activities. Holden Caulfield was conceived & set going without the slightest reference to critics & he has thrived without the slightest help from them - except, perhaps, where their quotes have been used as aids in marketing. Indeed it's probably only now that he's been put on the college syllabus & the poor children are required to read the commentaries that he will start to die. Scottie B.