I guess I still owe a follow-up to the Stelfox/Tufluv dancehall NIIMBYism debate I commented on, but for now, let me just make one small point that occurred to me the other day.

Dave writes in his response: "It all goes back to the dilettante/purist debate carried on in the blogosphere a few months back." Now, this reminded me of that whole thing, which itself sort of goes back to a great Simon Reynolds essay. The problem is, though, that the enemy (so to speak, heh) is defining the terms. "Dilettante" is not a word with a positive connotation in most circles, whereas "purist" is, I think. (Although I note that Simon doesn't think so in that essay.) So maybe we need something else to call the former category.

How about "musical libertine"?

(Alternately: epicure, gourmand, pleasuremonger, rake, sybarite, voluptuary.)

Hey, someone should name a band "The Dilettantes"!

And wow, I had no idea "pleasuremonger" was an actual word, but holy crap, what a word!

Me? I'm a pleasuremonger. Or libertine. I haven't decided yet.
posted by Mike B. at 11:32 AM 0 comments