Mark, am I representing you correctly?

[koganbot]

Tom's been posting on both his Tumblrs about "opinion leaders," his questions seeming to be: to what extent are there such creatures; do those outfits who claim to have the special ability to identify opinion leaders actually know what they're doing; and where these creatures have apparently been identified, is there any special value in trying to

Comments

[dubdobdee]

frank and martin are both somewhat correct -- it was a multivalent complaint, about sloppy usage as well as unjustified claims

[dubdobdee]

(deleted comment is pre-corrected version of the above)

[koganbot]

Yes, but aren't these invocations at least sometimes interesting, even when not elaborated upon? Would you necessarily want people to stop naively invoking the gods on their behalf? It's true that most people aren't fessing up to the fact that these are invocations, but then again, most people aren't very self-analytical.

Perhaps the envoy who serves two masters is secretly trying to become his own man.

Can there, someday - after you've written your book and mastered Kuhn, of course (or not) - be a Mark Sinker Anatomy Of Influence to supersede the flawed Bloomian Anxiety of same?

[dubdobdee]

agreed on most ppl not especially self-analytical, but this doesn't excuse everyone else refusing to be analytical in sympathy -- my crossness is a lot of it related to the fact that this invocation seems like a superb pretext for all kinds of interesting discussion about value and effectiveness, both of which seem somewhat germane to critical discussion if nothing else

(i don't actually so much mind the musicians themselves using formulae like this to fend off the request that they analyse themselves -- there's a superstition there which isn't going to be shkaen, in many foax, and is not necessarily usefully shaken in others... a lot of makers aren't particularly useful critics of themselves, even if they are (bloom would say) by definition critics, strong or weak, of those they put themselves in inspirational relationship with

Noted without comment

[koganbot]

Simpson watch

ASHLEE CONFESSES: "I'm a huge fan of female singers like Etta James and Courtney Love."

I have to admit that this confession makes me love Ashlee. So few singers can bring themselves to promote OTHER artists, and I think it's refreshing to read about Ashlee gushing over her favorite female singers. To me, that just gives Ashlee more credibility, and just moved her up a few notches in my book.

[dubdobdee]

i have no problem whatever with the formulation "i am a huge fan of"

[koganbot]

Personally I love being asked who my influences are, since the people whom I've cited become my envoys. See?

Influential

[koganbot]

From the YouTube comment thread for Tom Verlaine album Around:

Franco Frau 2 years ago
One of the most original and influential guitarists in rock history
Reply

Comrade Xenuuu 1 year ago
Influential is pushing it, but I agree that's he's brilliant.
(Unfortunately, we get this from Wikipedia: "His poetic lyrics, coupled with his accomplished and original guitar playing, are highly influential and widely praised in the music media.")