Is this a valid criticism?

Little Anonymous Me said:

Eek! That's like putting a sign on your stuff saying "Take me, I'm yours!"

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I've learned to be a little more urban since then. In my home town we never locked our doors, because we expected our neighbors to walk in at any time of day or night. It wouldn't be a scandal for someone to drop by and borrow something when nobody was home, and just leave a note.
Sometimes people would drop by and leave stuff (like home made jam or pie! )

GiddyUpGo said:

It just struck me as kind of an odd criticism, but maybe growing up near the river gave me different ideas about summer recreation. Would love to know if anyone else agrees or disagrees. Thanks!

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New Hampton, New Hampshire. Small stream to the south of town. Local teenagers swim there, with and without.

(Not a dirty old man.)

Rhubix said:

Sometimes people would drop by and leave stuff (like home made jam or pie! )

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Many ranches here in Baja Arizona don't lock their doors either. They are so remote, when no one is home, a thief could batter the door down. They would be able to see the owner returning from miles away.

There may not even be phone lines, since many use radio for contact. On the other hand, few thieves are ready to drive 'way out there in the desert, off the main roads.

I agree with most people here. Thank them and take what was helpful, but I'd ignore that one. Especially since it seems to me it's not actually an issue with the plot or the spelling/grammar of the story.

I've actually never heard of anyone critiquing where something is set?? Is that normal? (I'm new at critiquing, I generally just focus on spelling/grammar errors, voice and things that don't contribute to the plot - so I wouldn't actually critique a setting unless there's too much description and not enough action)

Once upon a time, there was a guy who asked a lady if she would crit his novel. [EDIT: The lady asked the guy to do likewise, btw, but that's another story.] Both were decent writers, so both were confident that the crit by the lady would really help the guy. . .except, that didn't happen.

Instead, the lady--this nice lady--began to, um, rewrite the guy's novel.

She erroneously thought her ideas were better. She arrogantly believed she could tell his story better.

As one might imagine, the guy became, shall we say, miffed, and things got a little out of hand.

The fallout wasn't purdy, as they say.

(Spoiler alert!!!!!) Our story has a happy ending. After nearly ripping their own hair out, and threatening each other with bodily harm (not really), after days of back-and-forth emailing, explaining, apologizing, laughing and crying (only the lady cried, as far as she knows), the guy realized he'd been remiss for not defining his expectations beforehand, and the really, really nice lady realized she'd been remiss for overstepping her boundaries. . .(secretly thinking, Not my fault, he didn't set any! But that's incidental to this story.)

The End

Rhubix said:

I've learned to be a little more urban since then. In my home town we never locked our doors, because we expected our neighbors to walk in at any time of day or night. It wouldn't be a scandal for someone to drop by and borrow something when nobody was home, and just leave a note.
Sometimes people would drop by and leave stuff (like home made jam or pie! )

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*crawls into a corner and gibbers at the very idea*


I am such an urbanite.

KTC said:

Your critiquer is putting herself too far into this. It's not about her. You have to be careful with critiquers who have such narrow-minded feedback.

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This is truth.

If I were in the OP's situation, I'd call her out on it. Too, as another poster suggested, who was it, kkbe, or someone, not sure, it's slipping my mind, anyway, set boundaries. But above all, clarify what those boundaries are.

I typically say: no holds barred, whatever you're willing to give. Mistake. Some critters might take that as an invitation to chow all your words and spit out theirs. Just sayin'. To no one in particular.

As for the OP, there's nothing wrong with providing your logic to counter her/his point, and continue forward...or discontinue if you've lost trust/faith in his/her judgment. I suggest discussing it with the critter and going from there.

Good luck,

Lyx

i_paint_the_sky said:

Your critiquer seems to have some very narrow-minded views of what 20-something year old girls do/what their priorities are.

As long as it is an established "place to swim" then I absolutely don't see anything wrong with that. People swim in rivers and lakes all the time.

I really would only maybe question the characters' choice if this was not a place where people, or at least the characters, usually swim, but your description makes it sound as if it's a normal occurrence. And even if it wasn't, it wouldn't be hard to give them a reason for going there.

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Agreed. Unless I'm missing something from not actually having read the piece (which is quite possible), it seems fine to me that they swim in a river.

That's a comment I would disregard. Sure, it's a valid reaction, but she's obviously in a really small minority.

But I might get in touch with the critter and ask about her rationale; and whether she simply found it implausible based on her experience, or if there was a world building detail that got lost in translation, or a personality issue, etc.