Comments on: My Latest Chartbuster

By: Slickriptide

Slickriptide — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 21:26:11 +0000

We ARE talking Elvis here, not exactly the deepest of singers. That said, for the time period it was written and recorded in, it’s not really that bad. If it has a fault, it’s that people could listen, nod their heads and say “Yeah, I’m AWARE, I’m with it!” and then go on about their lives doing nothing to change things.

Or maybe that’s what Teresa meant by “self congratulatory”, but that trait belongs to the listeners, not to the song itself.

Since then we’ve come full circle to glorifying ghetto life and making “gangsta” cool. I’m not sure that’s any healthier than the “white man’s burden” approach of a few decades earlier that Elvis’ song represents.

None of which has anything to do with Steve’s song, except that it doesn’t quite deliver the full desolation of the author’s selling out to make a buck. Ha ha ha!

By: skzb

skzb — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:08:46 +0000

TNH: Okay, so, yeah. I can begin to describe the reasons I hate it.

By: Teresa Nielsen Hayden

Teresa Nielsen Hayden — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 05:58:27 +0000

You hate it because it’s stupid, it’s self-congratulatory, and it just plain sucks. All else is commentary.

By: skzb

skzb — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 19:49:08 +0000

L. Raymond: No, it is an appalling song by Elvis Presley called, of course, “In the Ghetto.” I can’t begin to describe the reasons I hate it.

By: rthornton777

rthornton777 — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:29:47 +0000

@5 I blame it all on Nick Cave.

By: L. Raymond

L. Raymond — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:51:42 +0000

@3 You seem to be saying that it’s only popular art that’s “true to heart”, but I disagree. Simply because someone chooses a more complex way to express herself, such as composing a full symphony rather than a folk tune, or writing Pride and Prejudice rather than a comic book, doesn’t mean she feels less intensely at all.

@4 I’ve never seen a phrasing of the theory, much less a paraphrasing, but I think anyone who often reads for fun is familiar with the author who’s just following a formula, and the difference between those stories and ones written by the same person for her own pleasure.

I have a number of books here writen by authors I’m not particularly fond of, but they just happened to have abandoned their official Plot Point Checklist and written a book that doesn’t involve the same characters as a popular series, and the difference is obvious.

@5 More Joel?

By: skzb

skzb — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 02:57:24 +0000

Um, if you guys really don’t know what tune that goes to, man, you are SO lucky.

By: JP

JP — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 01:58:58 +0000

LRaymond, that quotation strikes me as a decent paraphrase of the Cool Theory of Literature.

The poen itself kinda reminded me of the song “Death of an Unpopular Poet.”

By: Josh C

Josh C — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 22:34:19 +0000

I recall another author who made this very observation the very focal point of a central character (except the art form was music and the world made up)….the difference between the scholars’ view of what is ‘proper’ art, and the population’s tendency toward the more true-to-heart, simplified, and easily understood….(in this case complicted symphonies vs. memorable ditties).

I suspect the debate has gone on since the beginning of artistic expression and will continue until there is nothing left to express.

By the way, I like the poem/song.

By: AShortt

AShortt — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 13:03:41 +0000

Selling candy is easier than selling four course meals.