Mailbag

[IED0DXM%OAC.UCLA.EDU@mitvma.mit.edu]

 To: Love-Hounds
 From: Andrew Marvick (IED)
 Subject: Mailbag

     Jon Drukman and Joe Turner both seem to share a sad, adolescent
fear of direct expression of softer emotions in art. _The_Sensual_World_:
"Ack barf" (even though it's _plainly_ one of the greatest album titles
in the history of music); "The sheets are soaked by your tiny fish":
"Ack barf" (even though it's _clearly_ a line of pure genius, especially
as sung--two different ways--in the song); the "visuals" in _Hammer-
smith_: "laughably inane" (even though there can really be _no_question_
_whatever_ that Kate's performance is beyond any legitimate aesthetic
criticism of _any_kind_); the lyrics of _In_the_Warm_Room_: "Ack barf":
(even though they are among the only lyrics in the history of music
to have dealt with such a subject from such a perspective, and with
amazing lyrical success--and this is of course quite beyond any
question); etc., etc. IED recommends that Jon and Joe take off a few
weeks to "get in touch with their feminine sides," or something. Because
their criticism has begun to say far more about their own hangups than
about the work they attempt to criticize (which, of course, is
completely uncriticizable).

-- Andrew Marvick