Liars and Saints

A while ago I wrote about Robyn's "Dancing on My Own," a song beloved by the world and a song I rank really, really high. I'm happy to report NPR just did a piece on this song, in its American Anthems series: https://www.npr.org/2019/06/10/730641583/robyn-dancing-on-my-own-alone-together-american-anthem Among the main points: *This is a strangely jaunty tune paired with a sad story. The clash between rhythm and words seems to capture something about Robyn's state of mind; she is in mourning, but she is also resolute; she is a mess, but she'll keep going. (It makes me think about "Walking on Broken Glass.") *Some gay listeners think, when Robyn sings, "I'm not the girl you're taking home," she is in fact saying, "I'm not the guy you're taking home." (And she DOES achieve something weird and ambiguous with that syllable.) All this calls to mind gay male cabaret performers who make use of Taylor Swift's ...

The greatest pop song of all time is Robyn's "Dancing on My Own." This isn't a shocking or iconoclastic pick. Many, many people would choose this song. What I'm offering here is just my own idiosyncratic love letter to Robyn. A cliche of MFA programs is that a writer should "show, not tell," and that's not necessarily valid. You can, in fact, "tell," if you make things interesting. (Some people would say a good deal of Philip Roth's writing is "telling" -- but it's telling with a sui generis, compelling voice, so we read along, anyway.) Still, I enjoy "showing." Spotting the strange details in an interaction that others would overlook--and revealing depths of character through those details. That's what makes reading fun, if you ask me. One example: In Taylor Swift's classic "You Belong with Me," Taylor reveals to a would-be boyfriend that she's "listening to the kind of music [y...