Was the Art of 'S-Town' Worth the Pain? - The Atlantic: "It’s possible, of course, that no pain was caused by S-Town—that everyone was perfectly fine and happily signed off on the revealing nature of the podcast, or that McLemore would have been pleased with the complex memorial to his tumultuous life. But these questions are worth asking in a larger way, especially if S-Town helps give rise to a trend in podcasting where in-depth explorations of a single life are sold as binge-worthy narratives. If that’s the case, it seems worth issuing the same sort of caution that Bishop gave to Lowell more than 40 years ago: Evaluate the moral price of producing good art and what damage it might cause to those involved when their secrets are instantly available for the entertainment consumption of thousands or millions of listeners. S-Town may be a groundbreaking new kind of podcast; it also, like many poems, memoirs, and articles before it, confesses other people’s pain in a public—and at times questionable—way.
"
'via Blog this'