greil marcus on finding the meaningful in the seemingly trivial.
People are often told that the things they care about—the music they love, the movies they watch—are fundamentally trivial, says Marcus. “It’s not politics, it’s not economics, it’s not religion, it’s not high art. It’s not anything that’s going to last.” But writing about things that matter to people, in a forum that’s presumed not to be serious, “gives you the freedom to write about politics, economics, religion, high art.”
— Greil Marcus, quoted in Chava Gourarie, “Why Greil Marcus’s column has lasted 30 years,” CJR, 10 March 2016.