sigurrosislife:

so i saw this band called sigur ross or something last night? i mean they were ok i guess

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Heh.

Something I’ve come to believe quite strongly in the last few years is this: When an artist (any artist — painter, musician, author, actor, whatever) connects with a fandom, it’s like they speak a common language. If I don’t understand that language, that’s on me, not them. I have no more business mocking or belittling an artist or that artist’s fans based on my failure to appreciate that art any more than I should be mocking and belittling speakers of Greek or Swahili for sharing thoughts and ideas I can’t understand.

There are people in my life who I care about who nevertheless don’t understand why I like (for example) some YA fiction, or a Web series aimed primarily at an audience of young women, or bands like fragment., Godspeed You! Black Emperor, or Sigur Rós. And for their own particular reasons they sometimes, in their own particular ways, go as far as mocking and belittling the things I love, which sometimes feels like they’re mocking and belittling me. “Oh my God! You’re always on Tumblr talking to dumb girls about this stuff! Your music is so lame! It’s embarrassing!”

Well, yeah, from a certain outside perspective I’m sure it seems weird and unintelligible. But I’m not going to stop. Or at least, I’m not going to stop just because someone doesn’t understand Swahili. People who begin from a belief that something is unworthy of their attention, and never test that belief by actually examining that thing with an open mind, are the ones who should be embarrassed. Mocking something you don’t understand isn’t cool, or if it is, then cool isn’t something I’m willing to be.

I really liked this review of Wednesday’s Sigur Rós show. Last night, Thursday, they played in Kansas City, MO. That’s just 1,707 miles, 15 days, from the Santa Barbara Bowl.

Closer…

Reposted from http://lies.tumblr.com/post/47179110499.

Tags: sigur rós, uncool fandoms, mockery.

This entry was posted by jbc on Friday, April 5th, 2013 at 12:25 am and is filed under Tumblr. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.