Although Elliott Smith’s music doesn’t speak to me quite the way that it does to many, I found your show on him fascinating and disturbing. It got me thinking about the ‘problem of evil’ which seems to present a knockdown argument against there being a worthwhile order to the universe, and whether great art can justify the suffering which contributes to it. Is a world where Smith had a less painful existence but never wrote ‘Waltz #2’ a better or worse one? I still say it’s a better one, but one which is also somehow less rich.
Regards,
Joseph Flatt
P.S. - I couldn’t believe that no-one picked ‘Pretty Mary K’!
Hi Adam,
Although Elliott Smith’s music doesn’t speak to me quite the way that it does to many, I found your show on him fascinating and disturbing. It got me thinking about the ‘problem of evil’ which seems to present a knockdown argument against there being a worthwhile order to the universe, and whether great art can justify the suffering which contributes to it. Is a world where Smith had a less painful existence but never wrote ‘Waltz #2’ a better or worse one? I still say it’s a better one, but one which is also somehow less rich.
Regards,
Joseph Flatt
P.S. - I couldn’t believe that no-one picked ‘Pretty Mary K’!