A general question to the house

[ksmith]

When critique crosses the line into cruelty, who is served?

Besides the author au jus, that is.

UPDATE: posted in the Comments section.

Comments

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I've seen this behavior in critique groups, where we ultimately concluded that the critiquer was playing a passive aggressive game, trying to tear people down so that she (and her writing) looked better by comparision.