āThe more research I did for this article, the less I wanted to write it, all aware of the irony ā or flat-out hypocrisy ā of writing an introduction like this to yet another article on the very subject I am chastising; fearing all I was doing was insensitively adding to this pile and being yet another unqualified person to talk about the life and death of a person whom I never knew or met. Article after contradictory article I read, an overwhelming strand often found tying these together ā aside from the more canonizing, unctuous pieces ā is the removal of compassion, treating Elliott as though he was nothing but a story, an object, a subject for copy.
Not a human being or a person or a remarkable artist. Even The Guardian wrote in 2004: āNo one was too surprised when Elliott Smith ā a boozy, druggy Oscar-nominated folk singer who had talked openly about killing himself ā was found dead.ā Well, actually, I suspect quite a lot of people were, especially his friends and family who had seen him get clean from illegal drugs (he was still on prescription drugs for anxiety when he died) and working on making new music; and naming his primary attributes as simply being āboozyā and ādruggyā and a āfolk singerā slides into territory that teeters closer to tastelessness than it simply does objectification.ā
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