Elliott was disarmingly bright, according to everyone who knew him, an avid reader of Dostoevsky, Kafka, Beckett, Stendhal, Freud, the Buddha, all of whom destabilized notions of identity. I think he knew how little we know about who we are. The idea comes through in lyrics. I dont know who I am, he says simply; at times he wishes he were no one. Hes a stickman shooting blanks at emptiness, living with one dimension dead. Hes an invisible man with a see-through mind. Hes a junkyard full of false starts. Hes a ghost-writer, feeling hollow.

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About William Todd Schultz, Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith

William Todd Schultz, Torment Saint: The Life of Elliott Smith.

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