Subject: Re: I Wanna Be Sedated...
From: Michael Snyder (mkesnyder@yahoo.com)
Date: Tue Apr 17 2001 - 13:23:57 GMT
Mr. Bowman: J.D. Salinger is a part of our popular
culture, just like rock and roll. Both are worthy of attention
and study. Introducing dates from a book I have handy was just
a way of proving that you were misinformed about punk's
beginnings, that it cannot accurately be called a British
invention. It is a matter of factuality--people turn to books
in such cases. I'd hardly call that "solemn scholarship." If
you don't think the subject is important, then why offer your
two cents in the first place?
So you don't know or care about rock music in general; why
do you choose to chastise and insult someone on what you
perceive as their misinformed view? Someone corrects your
error, and in reply, you launch a broadside against an entire
genre of music and generations of people--a typical distracting
move. Rock music and punk rock are important to many adults,
scholars and intellectuals, and for us it is indeed worthy of
critical attention as a product and mirror of our culture and
times. I can't stand to see you scold someone so
condescendingly about something of which you are mostly
ignorant.
In lamenting the downfall of culture and society, which is
something elders have always done (not a very "adventurous"
posture), you present yourself as an old-fashioned would-be
"highbrow" classicist snob. Your comments on rock music probably
alienate you from most of the readership on this board. Recent
postings here have lamented Joey Ramone's death, expresed
personal connections with punk and its history, have connected
the punk ethic to Holden, etc. Thus, you know the subject is
important to people on this list, and obviously you enjoy trying
to get a rise out of people on the board who actually understand
and care about connections between music and literature. Maybe
when one reaches a certain age all the generations below seem
like "babies."
Surely it hasn't escaped you that the birth and rise in
popularity of both _Catcher_ and rock and roll are approximately
parallel, tapping into similar feelings of youth alienation and
angst. Don't forget that Salinger himself doesn't have the most
classical tastes in non-print media--according to the bios, he
likes popular musicals like "Gigi," watches a lot of TV,
including soap operas, and he enjoys past popular fare like
Hitchcock and the Marx Brothers: not exactly arcane or highbrow
tastes, but typical of his generation.
I really fail to see how Hayden is more "genuine" than
original punk rock, which is more "durable" so far than most
cultural productions of the seventies. For those interested,
read Greil Marcus' _Lipstick Traces_ for links between punk and
literary and art movements which preceded it.
Boo hoo....
--- Scottie Bowman <rbowman@indigo.ie> wrote:
>
>
> My God, Snyder, you're worse than my own children.
>
> All that solemn scholarship, the kind of thing that used
> to concern itself with the dating of Haydn quartets,
> deployed now in the service of the most successful con
> trick every played on credulous children - persuading
> them their arse-achingly banal expressions in the form
> of 'rock' (punk or otherwise) is something other than
> pre-homogenised pap for baby mouths.
>
> I take it back, Cec. Things are NOT just much the same.
> In obedience to the law of entropy, they're all gradually
> winding down. It's all getting a little less adventurous,
>
> a little less moving, a little less durable, a little
> blander,
> a little less genuine.
>
> In 1601, they fought to get into the Globe theatre.
> In 2001, whiny ole Dylan is their 'great poet.'
>
> Scottie B.
>
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2b25 : Thu May 17 2001 - 17:47:53 GMT