Mar

19

Carl Wilson’s Journey to the End of Taste

Filed Under Updates 

Let's Talk About Taste
Although I haven’t yet read (or even purchased) Celine Dion’s Let’s Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste by the non-Beach Boy Carl Wilson, the book has been catching my attention more and more. He just recently appeared on The Colbert Report talking about the book (we have the video after the jump). It looks like he’s working in proximity to some of the issues that I’ve mentioned on a previous post.

He mentions in the interview that he’s trying to remove the word ‘repulsed’ from his vocabulary in questions of taste. While I don’t know that the word and its ilk need removal, they should definitely not function as go-to descriptors. He also briefly mentions ironic appreciation of kitsch, and its low, sarcastic tone of condescension, which I hope our generation manages to purge as much as possible. The interview barely gives us a glimpse of the book’s themes, but it looks promising and might inform some of the discussion I’d like to continue here.

You can also find Carl’s description of the Colbert experience on his blog.

The Colbert ReportMon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Carl Wilson

Posted by: Josh

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Comments

2 Responses to “Carl Wilson’s Journey to the End of Taste”

  1. larson on March 19th, 2009 11:12 am

    The ironic thing about this was that the night before I saw this on Colbert, my wife and I watched a good 30 minutes of a Celine Dion spectacle on public television. I didn’t use the word “repulsed,” but the performance did prompt me to discuss at length, with my wife, what appears to me to be a very scary trend: mindless Sesame St. music w/lights and dancers that adults pay insane amounts of money to watch with dumb smiles plastered across their faces while drool collects in the corners of their mouths. It was disturbing. I’m not sure why, but the fact that there were grown men attending, and clapping, and enjoying it, was the worst part of all.

    So there you go. Very interested to read this book and figure out how this guy came out the other end of his initial sentiment, which I whole-heartedly share, with a positive outlook on it all.

  2. Dan Sack on March 19th, 2009 12:27 pm

    Yeah, I think getting rid of the ironic love of bad music is great, but I don’t think I can be postmodern enough to appreciate her position enough to enjoy her music to any degree. The direction he wants people to move is good, but I think he may have gone a bit too far, but of course I haven’t read the book… yet (that’s a joke, I wont read it…)

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