Friday, March 10, 2006

YALit: Girl in a Cage: Importance of Being Earnest

Girl in a Cage: Importance of Being Earnest—I gush over Donorboy and then the author of the book writes a blog entry questioning the value of authenticity and earnestness. Now what am I supposed to do? Granted he finally decides that sometimes earnestness is okay, but I just couldn't help but feel that the author is just out to make me sad. I so loved that book for its authenticity, and here the author is telling me that authenticity isn't where it's at. Brendan, can't you rethink? Please?

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Posted at 7:32:00 AM
     

Comments:

Well, I think my word choice was sloppy, and I shouldn't have conflated earnestness and authenticity. I was thinking about the kind of earnest, "this song's gonna change the world, man," kind of thing, which so often goes astray. So there's like, for example, Billy Bragg's "Levi Stubbs' Tears," which is a mind-blowingly good song about the redemptive power of pop music which I think is good because it captures something real about life; and then there's Billy Bragg's "Tender Comrade," a jaw-droppingly bad song which seems like a clumsy attempt to make a point and possibly change the world rather than to capture some kind of authentic experience. If that makes any sense. Which I suppose it might not. Anyway, thanks for the nice words about Donorboy.

# posted by Brendan : 8:39 PM

 

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