There is no point in
saying that “Like A Rolling Stone” is your favourite song by Bob Dylan. Even if
that happens to be true. No one cares. Because – and this is very important –
you have to earn the right to say that “Like A Rolling Stone” is your favourite
song by Bob Dylan. Until you earn that right – you might as well not say
anything.
Take a Saul Bellow
idea about how you should never sin against love. Sentimental, pathetic, soppy?
It might be all that and more – if you say it. But when John Niven builds sections of his last novel around
this idea, it does not sound tasteless or sentimental. It sounds beautiful.
Smart. Witty. Because it’s John Niven and his novel. The man can get away with things. He can even say Citizen Kane
is the greatest film of all time – if he wishes so.
And you have to earn it first. You’re a blank space, in most cases, so there’s no point in saying
that black holes are black. Everyone knows that. And no one cares. So for now,
try “Queen Jane Approximately”. It would make so much more sense.
