"Everybody has to be reminded that there's another way to be. Another more mysterious, unpredictable way to be that's not necessarily based upon contrivances"
About this Quote
Crouch is arguing for art as a corrective to a culture that mistakes self-invention for selfhood. “Reminded” is the tell: he’s not selling novelty, he’s diagnosing amnesia. In his world - jazz clubs, newsroom polemics, the long argument over what counts as “authentic” Black expression - people drift toward templates because templates are legible and rewarded. The “contrivances” are not just PR polish or social-media performance (though they fit); they’re the ideological scripts that tell you what you’re supposed to sound like, desire, and represent.
The line works because it praises “mysterious” and “unpredictable” without turning them into mushy romanticism. Crouch’s “another way to be” isn’t an escape hatch from responsibility; it’s a demand for complexity. He’s taking aim at a modern habit of flattening humans into types: the marketable rebel, the correct spokesperson, the safely transgressive artist. Contrivance, for him, is the enemy of swing - that living, slightly dangerous timing you can’t counterfeit. You can rehearse licks; you can’t rehearse surprise.
Context matters: Crouch spent decades fighting what he saw as cultural falsification, including branding masquerading as radicalism and easy narratives replacing craft. This sentence is a miniature manifesto for his central belief that serious art reopens the self. It doesn’t just entertain; it interrupts the autopilot, forcing an encounter with what can’t be prepackaged. That’s the provocation: not “be yourself,” but “admit how much of yourself has been written for you - then listen for what’s left.”
The line works because it praises “mysterious” and “unpredictable” without turning them into mushy romanticism. Crouch’s “another way to be” isn’t an escape hatch from responsibility; it’s a demand for complexity. He’s taking aim at a modern habit of flattening humans into types: the marketable rebel, the correct spokesperson, the safely transgressive artist. Contrivance, for him, is the enemy of swing - that living, slightly dangerous timing you can’t counterfeit. You can rehearse licks; you can’t rehearse surprise.
Context matters: Crouch spent decades fighting what he saw as cultural falsification, including branding masquerading as radicalism and easy narratives replacing craft. This sentence is a miniature manifesto for his central belief that serious art reopens the self. It doesn’t just entertain; it interrupts the autopilot, forcing an encounter with what can’t be prepackaged. That’s the provocation: not “be yourself,” but “admit how much of yourself has been written for you - then listen for what’s left.”
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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