Fair enough. But that's the standard now, right?

It's one of the only albums that you can close your eyes at the beginning and open them again at the end of the album and you find that it has escorted you through a lovely dream.

Thing is, when I was a teenager and deeply into rock music, I did give a shit about Tommy Dorsey and Harry James.

I know the contracts and the pace that the bands had to keep in the 60s was crazy, but it sure did produce a lot of greatness before it finally burnt them out.

I think you're tangling a lot of the arguments here. One, I reject that the purpose of art is to elicit emotional reaction. Two, the idea of an objective aesthetic, which is hardly exclusive to white America and which is hardly all encompassing of white America, merely means that there is an objective scale of…

No, that's not what I'm saying at all.

Of course they do. But that doesn't change the basic principles of viewing art and commenting on it.

No, I get the point. Unfortunately, the writer has bought into the lie that people are different based on their race and gender. They're not. We're not. We're all pretty much the same. The idea of an objective viewing is not a white male generated idea. It's an idea that exists across races, cultures, time and gender.…

Well, that was ridiculous. Talk about missing the point of critical review.

I appreciate the thought you're putting into this, sincerely. I would like to say that I take exception to the descriptions you use to describe my positions. I don't feel that you're stating my positions correctly which leads me to conclude you still don't understand what I'm saying.

Gosh, you don't seem to understand my argument at all. I in no way think that I hold a majority opinion on this issue. I don't demand that everyone stop being different than me unless you feel that that's the definition of anyone who advocates for anything.

How do you think I'm assuming that everyone is the same as me?

Just to be clear, I am not advocating a casual usage of the word. Far from it. Also, I didn't mention these black authors in an attempt to say they would support my position. I would imagine some would and some wouldn't. I only mentioned Cleaver and the authors as a way of demonstrating I'm not ignorant nor…

How? I've been fighting for civil rights my entire life. I'm well aware of the benefits of white privilege and the sins of racism in our culture. It's all pervasive and invades nearly every avenue of life, regardless of color. You're demonstrating exactly the problems with this position. I have a different point of…

Thank you for your comments. I do beseech you to really think about your position here. It is a nonsensical one that is reserved for no other word in any language. It's dangerous to give a word this power - the power to circumvent logic and common sense. Just because a lot of people are agreeing with you right now…

So, you're saying you won't think about the issue or even attempt to make it coherent?

I advocate using the word without the cutesy 'n-word' as a substitute in academic or intellectual conversations. I advocate this because we are adults and not children and to do otherwise infantilizes the participants and the very issue itself. This is a serious issue and we're treating the word like it's a magic…

Think about the issue.

Why?

Listen to yourself. How is it different than banning any word, because that ban reflects the offense that people have at hearing the word. Fuck was a word that was banned in every aspect because to use it was offensive, regardless of context. If the word can't be used in ANY context, then we're engaging in voodoo, not…