“And there was an underlying generosity to it, too, to be fair — all that ferocious canon-forming was also an act of generosity, of a sort — ‘here are all these amazing things, why would you settle for anything less?”
This is the best bit in that piece. I’d read a few paragraphs earlier and walking home had the idea circling about kpunk’s generosity, the amount he put out, the commitment, and an absolutely thrilling conviction.
When I encountered him on here I thought he was a bit shrill, lacking humour, hectoring. Dismissal of the office when I was obsessed, dismissal of dubstep when I was obsessed didn’t help. But he created a lot of space through the attention he gav, his criticism was productive as touched on in that piece. This matters… take it seriously, engage.
I was in awe of his blog when I first read it. He was able to articulate things I had felt in ways I couldn’t. Broad scope writing that invited you in without dumbing down. Those ideas around a kind of challenging pop education make sense. There were awkward and daft and nonsensical bits but that’s why it was vital.
So much writing, criticism, theory these days is so careful and couched in caveat, conscious of judgement. lots of qualification based on identity etc. I think a lot of the time this is sold as self-awareness and its well intentioned and necessary but what was thrilling about his stuff was the reach and conviction, some ferocity
The vampire castle essay was fucking brilliant imo. And brave, motivated by his repulsion at his own inaction in the face of left moralising. the fact he went for it despite that fear of being on the wrong side is why it’s so good, that’s the main lesson.