What does effective means?

What details of the first two paragraphs convey a sense of the ordinary,behind the scenes routines of film critics?

Could someone write me a personal narrative it can be your idea

London includes a quote about john thornton as he is observing hal attempt to motivate the exhausted dogs "it was idle, he knew, to get between a fool and his folly". if the word "idle" is defined as "of no real worth, importance, or significance", what does this statement mean with regard to hal? who is the fool? what is hal's folly? why would john thornton think it of no real worth or useless to intervene?