To sneer at it as obvious would be a mistake. Even the clunky or stammering expression of the three rules (“what the reviewer thinks about what the author says about that thing the book is about”) works as a hammer, driving home the essential principles and their distinctly separate, yet profoundly interrelated nature.
Always Question Authority
One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at authority. ~ Hitchens
Always Question Authority 