Let’s Talk About Love: Why Other People Have Such Bad Taste

312 Pages·2014·1.13 MB·English

by  Carl Wilson

LET’S TALK
ABOUT LOVE

LET’S TALK
ABOUT LOVE
Why Other People Have Such
Bad Taste
CARL WILSON
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
1385 Broadway 50 Bedford Square
New York London
NY 10018 WC1B 3DP
USA UK
www.bloomsbury.com
Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
First published 2014
© Carl Wilson and contributors, 2014
Part I: Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste was originally
published by Continuum, 2007
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can be
accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
ISBN: 978-1-6235-6328-8
Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN
CONTENTS
A note from the publisher vii
PART ONE Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End
of Taste Carl Wilson 1
1 Let’s Talk About Hate 3
2 Let’s Talk About Pop (and Its Critics) 13
3 Let’s Talk in French 25
4 Let’s Talk About World Conquest 41
5 Let’s Talk About Schmaltz 53
6 Let’s Sing Really Loud 65
7 Let’s Talk About Taste 75
8 Let’s Talk About Who’s Got Bad Taste 89
9 Let’s Talk with Some Fans 107
10 Let’s Do a Punk Version of “My Heart Will Go On”
(or, Let’s Talk About Our Feelings) 121
11 Let’s Talk About Let’s Talk About Love 137
12 Let’s Talk About Love 151
PART TWO Essays: What We Talk About When We Talk
About Love 165
Introduction Carl Wilson 167
The Artists We Deserve Nick Hornby 169
vi CONTENTS
With the Lights On, It’s Less Useless Krist Novoselic 177
If the Girls Were All Transported Ann Powers 183
The Easiest Thing To Forget Mary Gaitskill 189
Compared to What? Jason King 195
Let’s Talk About Diana Ross Daphne A. Brooks 205
Deep In The Game Drew Daniel 221
Children of the Corn Sukhdev Sandhu 227
Acting In and Out of Context James Franco 233
Too Much Sociology Marco Roth and the editors of n+1 245
Giving Up on Giving Up on Good Taste Jonathan Sterne 257
When I Come Home Owen Pallett 267
Playlist: Let’s Listen to Love Sheila Heti 271
PART THREE Afterword 279
Let’s Talk Later Carl Wilson 281
Acknowledgments 297
Notes on contributors 301
A NOTE FROM THE
PUBLISHER
In 2007, Continuum published the 52nd volume in the critically-
acclaimed 33 1/3 series. Its title, Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to
the End of Taste, seemed to suggest that it would be a book about
Céline Dion. But it turned out to be so much more. Let’s Talk About
Love uses Dion as a test case and thought experiment to prompt the
reader to second-guess the way we think about everything we like and
dislike, what we value and what we scorn. Soon, the praise poured in
and many reviewers immediately identified Let’s Talk About Love as
their favorite book in the 33 1/3 series, even though it was about what
was perhaps their least-favorite album.
The book sparked debates about taste not just in the music-writing
community, but in English and Cultural Studies departments on
university campuses around the world, on blogs and podcasts, and even
on TV’s The Colbert Report (where Wilson appeared on March 4, 2009).
Given the great response, Bloomsbury and Wilson decided to
create an expanded, standalone edition: What follows in Part One
is the original text of Let’s Talk About Love from the 33 1/3 series
in 2007. (Very tiny mistakes have been corrected for your reading
pleasure.) In Part Two is gathered a set of essays on the book’s themes
contributed by a wide range of prominent writers, musicians and
scholars. Finally, Carl Wilson returns to his initial questions and
updates what has happened in the worlds of both popular taste and
Céline Dion since the book’s publication, in a new Afterword – all to
deepen and enrich further what it means to talk about love.

PART ONE
LET’S TALK ABOUT
LOVE: A JOURNEY TO
THE END OF TASTE
Carl Wilson