This document discusses writing about cultural objects like songs or movies from a personal perspective. It notes that reviews and critical analyses typically situate cultural works within broader social contexts, but personal perspectives are also valuable. Personal accounts can help readers understand where the author is coming from and trust their insights more when they acknowledge being subjective. Reading about how others experience things familiar to you can also be interesting. The document uses an essay on the song "Venus in Furs" by The Velvet Underground as an example. The author knowledgeably describes the song while sharing how it was personally meaningful to him as a young person finding his way in society.

1. Writing About a Cultural Object
…from a personal point of view

2. Plenty of written genres focus on cultural objects (like movies, albums,
musical performances, art, plays, etc.). Reviews are one obvious example
of such a genre, but so are profiles, “best of” lists, and think pieces about
particular artists. Typically, writing like this helps situate a particular
cultural object within the context of society and shows its importance or
significance.

3. But why write about these kinds of cultural objects from
a personal point of view? You might ask, “who cares
why any one person finds a cultural object personally
meaningful and significant?”

4. Well, there are a few possible reasons:
• Though there are some authoritative sources of cultural knowledge (e.g. well-
known reviewers and columnists writing for established publications), when
they write about a cultural object from a non-personal point of view, it’s not
always clear where they’re coming from. In contrast, when someone gives you
insight into their own personal experience in relation to a cultural object like a
song or a movie, it helps ground their take on whatever it is they’re talking
about. That is, since you know they’re not trying to be objective, you tend to
trust them more.
• Also, it’s just fun to see how people who may be very different from you
respond to things that you are also familiar with.
• Basically, you’re reading stories about someone’s experience with a culture
that you have in common.

5. Consider the McSweeney’s essay on “Venus in Furs” by the
Velvet Underground, for instance. (Go ahead - look it up and
listen to the song right now for context! See Unit 4 | Readings
to read the essay.)

6. The author of the essay (Erich Kuersten) starts by describing the Velvet
Underground song “Venus in Furs,” though it’s clearly written from a personal
point of view: “Having been forced to take viola lessons in third grade, I found it
liberating when I first heard John Cale scraping away in ‘Venus in Furs’ like he
was purposely trying to piss off my dad.” His description of the song veers
between relatively straightforward description of the song: “Cale’s amplified
viola makes simple upward-bow-movement scraping noises to mimic whip
sounds” and a more personal take on the music’s effects: “as Lou sings what
every pissed-off, unwilling music student who has to stand for an hour with a
giant hunk of wood under his neck feels.”
In the second paragraph of the essay, Kuersten explains why this song, and the
Velvet Underground (fronted by Lou Reed) in general were so significant to him
at a particular point in his life: ”By my junior year of high school, I had…grown
into a social cripple. I needed a gateway back into society. Lou Reed suddenly
appeared on MTV…” Then he explains in what specific circumstances he came to
find The Velvet Underground, and more about what their albums meant to him.
The important thing is that he speaks knowledgably about the music (the result
of research, no doubt) as he gives us insight into what this song and these
albums meant to him as a young person.

7. For this unit, you’re going to be writing a personal essay about
your experience with a song that has been meaningful to you in
some way. The important thing is that you’re going to write
knowledgably about the song, the album, the artist, and its
cultural relevance – but ALSO, you’re going to tell readers a story
about why and how this song is significant to you. So from reading
the essay, we’ll get insight into the song as well as into you.