The case against Conor Oberst

Apparently, I have discovered since my last post that no one likes conor oberst. So yea, no one's perfect... I found an amusing thing on him.
I will definitely be the first to admit that his singing voice is pretty terrible. But I think the fact that his songs are still relatively popular is proof of his songwriting skills. He's definitely had some really terrible songs but his good songs are really good and more importantly very efficient in their word usage.

I think that the mark of all bad writing is too many words. Bad writing is runny and usually dripping with too many adverbs/adjectives/tired metaphors. Bad writers don't trust their readers to understand the point they're trying to make so they just keep saying it....or they keep describing...on and on and on. But if you think about it the most interesting pieces tell you enough to keep you engaged but leave you to draw your own conclusions. This is why I've always found science fairly uninteresting. When you read a chemistry book, you discover that under specific conditions, specific elements will always interact the same way. There's no mystery. Or maybe there is and I just never cared to learn enough chemistry to discover that. Anyways, today I read the only poem I have enjoyed in the New Yorker in a long time (i.e. ever lol):

"Learning to Read"
by Franz Wright
If I had to look up every fifth or sixth word,
so what. I looked them up.
I had nowhere important to be.

My father was unavailable, and my mother
looked like she was about to break,
and not into blossom, every time I spoke.

My favorite was the Iliad. True,
I had trouble pronouncing the names,
but when was I going to pronounce them, and

to whom?
My stepfather maybe?
Number one, he could barely speak English;

two, he had sufficient intent
to smirk or knock me down
without any prompting from me.

Loneliness, boredom and terror
my motivation
fiercely fuelled.

I get down on my knees and thank God for them.

Du Fu, the Psalms, Whitman, Rilke.
Life has taught me
to understand books.