Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do: Writing about Music, Meaning, and the Ineffable

by Joel Heng Hartse

Writing about music, far from being the specialized domain of the rock critic with encyclopedic knowledge of micro-genres or the fancy-pants star journalist flying on private planes with Led Zeppelin, has become something almost any music lover can do—and does. It’s been said, however, that writing about music is a difficult, even pointless enterprise—an absurd impossibility, like “dancing about architecture.” But aside from the fact that dancing about architecture would be awesome, what is that ineffable something that drives people to write about music at all? In this short, insightful book, Joel Heng Hartse unpacks the rock writer Richard Meltzer’s assertion that writing about music should be a “parallel artistic effort” with music itself—and argues that music and the impulse to write about it is part of the eminently mysterious desire for meaning-making that makes us human.

Touching on the close resonances between music, language, love, and belief, Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do is relevant to anyone who finds deep human and spiritual meaning in music, writing, and the mysterious connections between them.

164 pages, Paperback

Published February 7, 2022

About the author

Joel Heng Hartse is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, where he teaches courses in academic writing, TESOL, and education. His academic work has appeared in journals including the Journal of Second Writing, Composition Studies, Across the Disciplines, the Journal of English for Research Publication Purposes, and English Today. His music criticism has appeared in Image, Geez, Blurt, Christianity Today, the Stranger, and Paste, among many other publications. His books include Sects, Love, and Rock & Roll (Cascade, 2010), Perspectives on Teaching English at Colleges and Universities in China (co-written with Jiang Dong, TESOL Press, 2015, and Dancing about Architecture is a Reasonable Thing to Do (Cascade, 2022). He is a former editor of the academic journal Discourse & Writing/ Rédactologie.

Reviews

[Joel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wrote this!

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoy the framing of this book - Joel starts out with a meta-discussion of music criticism itself that sets the stage for a diverse series of essays. The chapters range from the academic to the personal, and from intimate interviews to whimsical reflections. It also flows through several different lenses and themes which are introduced throughout.

The effect is a tour of music criticism, analysis, and appreciation. I admittedly am at the intersection of these interest and 100% the target reader for this. I’ve read a lot of academic popular music criticism and really appreciate this collection and how approachable and sincere it is.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book and will forever have some degree of credit for helping to change my perspective on music criticism, and the importance of critics in general. Where in the past I've felt that modern day criticism belonged to the realm of self-inflating culture leeches or intellectual gym teachers (those that can't do, etc. etc.), Joel makes a heartfelt case for a type of criticism, born out of love for the critiqued, that's not only beneficial to the world, but highly essential. I recommend this book to friends and colleagues in the music, art, or creative world to better understand those on the other side of the magazine articles and websites - and especially to anyone waving the critic flag. This is the best postulation on the true meaning of of music writing I've read, written in a voice that's funny, warm, and empathetic on every level.