Poetics

As this is Aristotle, one of the classics, supposedly the greatest of all perspectives on literary criticism, I was expecting to be blown away. My reaction instead was mostly indifference. There were a few interesting nuggets, but it was otherwise unappealing. In fact, his breakdown of what makes good poetry, specifically tragedy, read to me as formulaic and very limiting. Perhaps I would need to actually study the classics and philosophy as a whole to get a better grasp on this, but this didn't exactly whet my appetite for such study.