I have no brief for the eels .I never heard them until I listened to 2 songs on you-Tube ,which I can readily agree are “cloying songs about personal misery” .They didn’t appeal to me at all.But I would like to respectfully challenge G.M.’s dismissive “the insipidity of sentimentalizing your own life” by suggesting that sentimentalizing your own life is not necessarily navel gazing replete with psychobabbling cliches and bumper-sticker exhortations. Is sentimentalizing your own life inherently insipid ?…Henry MIller,Eugene O’Neil,Arthur Rimbaud,Dylan Thomas,Tennesee Williams , Robert Lowell, Willa Cather,…those are just the first names that come to mind have certainly “sentimentalized” their lives in works it would be quite unfair to describe as “insipid”… I don’t mean for this response to hinge on a semantic argument about the meaning of the word “sentimental”-but I see this as part of an admitted anti-biographical animus on G.M.’s part-which he certainly applies to himself,- and only violates on all to rare rare occasions to the reset of some (no doubt) many of his devoted readers.I’m thankful that Alfred KAzin didn’t scorn the art of memoir -proving that great critics, great interpreters of works, through their involvement of what they love -have interesting lives, which make for very worthwhile reading
The words from the above “to the reset(sic) of some ,no doubt many of his devoted readers “. should be omitted..
I was trying to say that I wish he would write his memoirs as other great critics have -they obviously wouldn’t be cloying sentimentalism or insipid,-Dave Rubin
“the times have long since changed back, and the demand for a better country, so palpable when the song first appeared, can now be swept off the stage by a single presidential tweet.”
This is melodrama. The demand for a better country can now be swept off the stage by a tweet? I think I know who gave up on the ideal of America first: people who write defeatist nonsense like this.
2018: Teachers have been on incredibly brave strikes in six states and counting, risking their livelihoods in mass action, often in places smug liberals wrote off as “red states,” ho-hum. Hardly any prominent Democrats want to capitalize on this rising, exciting movement. Why, exactly?
And if you want to talk about bad things happening — yes, things EVEN worse than Donald Trump tweets — well, ICE and The Border Patrol are working hard to become the American Gestapo. Hardly any prominent Democrats seem particularly keen to do anything about them. Why, exactly? [Google “ICE Border Patrol sexual assault” for the heartbreaking details from multiple news sources, and get angry that this is our government doing this in our names, and that talking about it is a tiny sideline from the all-important, I don’t know, “Putin controls everything” narrative that it is SO important to maintain.]
Conclusion: Actual brave actions are happening; actual incipient fascism is also happening. Jonathan Chait will be of no help explaining either. Since Donald Trump will keep tweeting away anyway, I guess we must be doomed.
GreilMarcus.net 
I have no brief for the eels .I never heard them until I listened to 2 songs on you-Tube ,which I can readily agree are “cloying songs about personal misery” .They didn’t appeal to me at all.But I would like to respectfully challenge G.M.’s dismissive “the insipidity of sentimentalizing your own life” by suggesting that sentimentalizing your own life is not necessarily navel gazing replete with psychobabbling cliches and bumper-sticker exhortations. Is sentimentalizing your own life inherently insipid ?…Henry MIller,Eugene O’Neil,Arthur Rimbaud,Dylan Thomas,Tennesee Williams , Robert Lowell, Willa Cather,…those are just the first names that come to mind have certainly “sentimentalized” their lives in works it would be quite unfair to describe as “insipid”… I don’t mean for this response to hinge on a semantic argument about the meaning of the word “sentimental”-but I see this as part of an admitted anti-biographical animus on G.M.’s part-which he certainly applies to himself,- and only violates on all to rare rare occasions to the reset of some (no doubt) many of his devoted readers.I’m thankful that Alfred KAzin didn’t scorn the art of memoir -proving that great critics, great interpreters of works, through their involvement of what they love -have interesting lives, which make for very worthwhile reading
The words from the above “to the reset(sic) of some ,no doubt many of his devoted readers “. should be omitted..
I was trying to say that I wish he would write his memoirs as other great critics have -they obviously wouldn’t be cloying sentimentalism or insipid,-Dave Rubin
“the times have long since changed back, and the demand for a better country, so palpable when the song first appeared, can now be swept off the stage by a single presidential tweet.”
This is melodrama. The demand for a better country can now be swept off the stage by a tweet? I think I know who gave up on the ideal of America first: people who write defeatist nonsense like this.
2018: Teachers have been on incredibly brave strikes in six states and counting, risking their livelihoods in mass action, often in places smug liberals wrote off as “red states,” ho-hum. Hardly any prominent Democrats want to capitalize on this rising, exciting movement. Why, exactly?
And if you want to talk about bad things happening — yes, things EVEN worse than Donald Trump tweets — well, ICE and The Border Patrol are working hard to become the American Gestapo. Hardly any prominent Democrats seem particularly keen to do anything about them. Why, exactly? [Google “ICE Border Patrol sexual assault” for the heartbreaking details from multiple news sources, and get angry that this is our government doing this in our names, and that talking about it is a tiny sideline from the all-important, I don’t know, “Putin controls everything” narrative that it is SO important to maintain.]
Conclusion: Actual brave actions are happening; actual incipient fascism is also happening. Jonathan Chait will be of no help explaining either. Since Donald Trump will keep tweeting away anyway, I guess we must be doomed.