Quote someone
Out of context: Reply #2149
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'[...] in the weeks following [David Bowie's] death, stories started to appear. An interview that the groupie Lori Mattix had given in 2015 resurfaced, telling how she lost her virginity to Bowie at the age of 15. Mattix didn’t begrudge Bowie her virginity; in fact she spoke of the incident in rhapsodic language: “I was an innocent girl, but the way it happened was so beautiful ... Who wouldn’t want to lose their virginity to David Bowie?” I believed her, and I was left feeling horrified and sad.
This, then, is the very, very specific thing that students want to know: can they listen to David Bowie?
This is what I tell the students: consuming a piece of art is two biographies meeting: the biography of the artist that might disrupt the consuming of the art; the biography of the audience member that might shape the viewing of the art. Your biography, your feelings are important. Not just your feelings of abhorrence for the deed, but your love for the work. The sense of beauty it brings into your life. Beauty is a fragile principle. It looks silly when it’s brought up against utility – or morality. When we mull over what to do about the art of monstrous men, beauty seems like a dandelion puff – the merest nothing – next to the loud j’accuse of saying how awful these men were in their personal lives. And yet. Beauty matters too. We don’t make decisions about beauty. Like the stain, beauty happens to us.'
— Claire Dederer, 'Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma'
- Weirdly, I just y'day happened on evidence in the Michael Jackson paedo case that was ... well, damning. I didn't realise there was any actually out thereNairn
- I suspect there's a whole lot. But, I suppose, Michael Jackson — when alive — was 'too big to fail', so to speak. Had to be seen as innocent at all costs.Continuity
- protect the money machine at all costsimbecile