There’s a long profile of the Mountain Goats by Stephen Rodrick in New York Magazine that leaves me feeling a little icky. The author examines both John Darnielle as well as one of his particularly earnest young fans:
He looks more or less like the rest of the assembled Mountain Goats faithful, a cross section of earnest young poet boys, geeky music-philes, and self-styled off-the-grid types carrying messenger bags—nearly a thousand of whom have gathered here tonight to bathe in Darnielle’s light. Wesley follows his brethren inside, sips from a water bottle, and paces the lobby. He stops at the merch table and plunks down $12 on a Mountain Goats T-shirt.
I haven’t been to a Mountain Goats show in a couple years, but I remember the crowds being a little more diverse than that. But there’s a lot of personal information about Darnielle that I don’t recall being explicitly detailed before (heroin, meth). An interesting read, for sure, but it seems exploitative and manipulative to arrange the eventual meeting between them. And a little gross. Or something.
Neither the fan nor Darnielle appear to be put off by the article, since they both posted enthusiastic comments on the Mountain Goats forums.
Via LHB.
I think the reporter’s idea to have the two meet wasn’t necessarily a bad impulse, but it did create an awfully artificial situation. To the credit of Darnielle and Wesley handle it pretty well. I don’t know Darnielle, but you kind of get the sense that he’s always gonna try to do “the decent thing,” whatever that is.
The whole thing just seems really condescending to me.