It’s IMPORTANT, but is it GOOD?

think, the quality of bands, but it shouldn’t necessarily diminish their importance. But how do we measure something that is important even when it isn’t good? And is measuring it even beside the point?

This brings us to Girls, the HBO TV series. There are a lot of young people on the Internet — writing that sentence, I am aware that I sound like a 7,000year-old man — who do things like blog or post (OK, maybe 8,000 years old) in support of the Lena Dunham dramedy about four friends growing up after they’ve already come of age. Similarly, there are lots of old people on the Internet — provided they can find the ON button — who do things like blog or post (tapping their keyboard with a pencil) to explain young, witty, salt-tongued, intelligent and normal-bodied female as the gleaming hood ornament for a network is a long step for art and popular culture because it allows the possibility of expression for young women who, otherwise, might find none. The idea might seem like piffle for those who’ve never been struck, but if I hadn’t found ungainly suburban males playing rock ’n’ roll on crummy guitars out of yucky equipment, I probably never would have become an ungainly suburban male playing rock ’n’ roll, although, because I was who I was, it was more likely I’d come across one role model or another. The girls of my era, however, settled for Debbie Harry, maybe Joan Jett. Ms. Blondie was, and is, a enthusiasm, even though I struggled to be engaged in a show that, for the first halfdozen episodes, seemed to lapse into a series about relationships. Eventually, I admitted to another viewer that I didn’t think the new season was very good. Her eyes dimmed and our conversation ended. She walked away. What was wrong with me?

It’s hard to know if we’ll look back on Girls and see it as important. Actually, that’s not true. We probably already know that it is judging by its popularity, influence, relative forgiveness in the press, and the way people (OK, young people) gather on Sunday nights to watch it the way other people (OK, other older people) watched Seinfeld. But whether the show is good — or still good — is a necessary Watching those scenes, a friend

disbelieving the transgression in a show so ostensibly poised and smartly written. If I hadn’t connected with this transgression, I might have agreed with her. But Hannah’s descent into obsessive behaviour rang true to me.

I’d gone through something similar during the writing of one of my recent books. Over the (hurried) course of its creation, I became very aware of my breathing: the number of breaths, depth of intake, rate of breathing and its effect on my chest cavity. I laboured over this while writing every day, and, returning home, convinced myself that there was either a hole in my chest or that cardiac arrest was imminent. Then I started noticing my heart beat. I was convinced that my heart was going to explode. My GP sent me to a behavioural therapist and we worked it out. After my book was finished, I returned to normal, but the process had nearly done me in.

Hannah becomes wracked by the insecurity of writing a book, as some do; as many do. I’ve known writers who get terrible rashes; develop chronic fatigue; become carbuncled; can’t sleep; separate, then reunite, with spouses; accidentally burn stuff; and drink madly. Hannah’s affliction grows worse and her life spins out of control, another plot development that left many people frustrated, including untold thousands on message boards and comments pages. But for me, it was the single-most real thing, and just as I was ready to give up on the season, I was compelled to find out if the character would keep her head above water long enough to see her book come to life. One of the greatest gifts of art — beyond mere entertainment — is the ability to show the reader/ viewer/listener back to themselves. Girls had done that. Ms. Dunham had done that.

I’m still not sure if Girls is a good show. But because as many think it is as think it is not, it’s certainly important, at least in the realm of our times and what it means to viewers. Still, I’m sure that Lena Dunham would want it both ways. In the end, having others fight for you is fine, but fighting for yourself is even better.