I'm gonna get in trouble for this..

Question for all recovered or otherwise hardcore Nirvana fans:

By what definition of ‘pure’ was Kurt Cobain ‘too pure for this world’?

Sure, feel bad for the guy, his life did end in a tragic event, but to paint him as some kind of angel while still alive either belies that one is looking at him through the self-centered eyes of an adolescent mind or has little regard for the damaging and destructive behaviour patterns Kurt always had.

Does ‘pure’ have more to do with not ever having to have grown up? Were the pre-teen fans seeing their hero acting and talking just like them in interviews, and thinking that he committed some sort of heroic act by never giving in to parents or authority figures and never getting soft?

That's not to single Kurt out specifically as being any different than a lot of eccentric celebrities. The never growing up trait is one I just talked about in the very last blog post as it affected Peter Sellers.

Maybe there's something similar there.. I sort of see a bit of myself in Peter Sellers' ability to play a given part when needed, to take on other personality traits and mannerisms and make them his own, but having a fear of not know what is actually him. While he was terribly destructive to his family and his wives, his personal life was outside the scope of movie fans.

Kurt is unique in that he died right at the time when the Internet was nudging its way into mainstream society. Perhaps he was the first cult obsession of the Internet age. The first figure who existed in death more than in life, because the career of Nirvana began and grew and ended just before the explosion of personal Internet use. With a current band like Radiohead the focus of Internet obsessiveness is waiting for whatever is new, scrambling for leaked studio recordings and endless debates about a band's direction. But Nirvana had everything wrapped up into a neat little dramatic ball for people to roll around endlessly. Debates about the best album don't happen, (try to state your genuine opinion that brilliant piece of pop music Nevermind was better than the interesting but spotty In Utero and watch the shit hit the fan.)

Fixation on Kurt Cobain as some kind of E.T. figure who was crushed by the sheer awfulness of humanity has now become a shorthand for a kind of immature lashing out at any external forces that would try and intrude on someone's beautiful love/hate relationship one's self.
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