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Read other letters about this article
there are lots of good poets.
I come from the school of thought that a good artist is knowable by others, or at least there is some gleaning of genius available to almost ANYONE with some basic, cursory knowledge of the medium.
A second school of thought is more about 'status', so that even those who know a lot about the art may not be in on the supposed artistry of some specific artist. Indeed it becomes a nested Russian doll collection of initiates inside initiates. Til you reach the inner initiate who is so pure, so perfect that only he or she TRUUUULY understands that this artist is a genius in ways only he or she understands.
It is thus a sophomoric power play and you have to take people's word that the artist they worship is so INCREDIAWESOME!!! !! ! If only YOU, you simp, were skilled enough to understand.
Basically, this second school of thought is a JOKE. an IN joke, a joke on the initiates, and a joke on anyone willing to take them seriously.
The kind of joke similar to when a Buddhist stares at a grain of sand until that grain of sand contains ALL the secrets to the universe. BUT ONLY TO THAT BUDDHIST experiencing it at that time. Most people then grow up, once they get out of high school and quit the pot.
In the first school of thought, Springsteen is almost universally acknowledged as a genius, by those who know something about rock music. But, unlike BD, he is not inaccesible to most people. You need only hear Born to Run to comprehend that this was a genius at his best.
I can, on the other hand, listen to BD songs for months or years (til my face falls off) and still not understand if there is a THERE there.
Sorry, but the "I know better than you, and you are a simp" school of artist worship is crap and always will be.
GO FOOL SOMEONE ELSE.
