In an email interview, the poet and Harvard professor praised Rachel Gold’s “Being Emily”: “Consider giving it to a trans girl near you!” SCOTT HELLER
What do you and Taylor Swift have in common?
Ambition. The wish to be loved. The perilous, and occasionally ridiculous, desire to please everyone. A preference for incremental, build-on-what-came-before art over art that purports to burn everything down and start again. A willingness — and, I hope, an ability — to work with other people. Also a deep attachment to the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge conventions of modern songwriting, though of course she can write songs. I just write about them.
Tell me about a writer in the literary canon who shares some of these qualities.
Alexander Pope. Like Swift, he turned his dismay and his astonishment at the fickleness of public opinion — and his devotion to his real friends and real fans — into some of his greatest art. I talk about him in the book!
What’s the best book you’ve ever received as a gift?
“Being Emily” (2012), by Rachel Gold. Consider giving it to a trans girl near you! I ended up writing the introduction to the revised second edition.
Do you have a favorite memoir by a musician?
If it counts as a memoir: “Music: What Happened?,” by Scott Miller. If not, then “Bedsit Disco Queen,” by Tracey Thorn.
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The post Stephanie Burt on Taylor Swift and Some Other Favorite Geniuses appeared first on New York Times.
