Skip to main content
table of contents
Curriculum Guide: Final Tour
Sample Discussion/Exam Prompts
- (P) Is it necessary for individualism, transcendence, and absurdity to triangularly rely on each other in some ways? Or can any of these three chapters stand alone, in Petty’s case or generally?
- (C) How does the music industry simultaneously encourage individualism and stomp it out? To what extent do you think one or the other direction in this two-fold trend is winning out?
- (M) Do musicians have any obligation to publicize their work? What is your opinion of Petty’s approach to giving interviews over the years?
- (W) In the chapters on transcendence and absurdity, there is a lot of material about Bob Dylan. How does the author prevent Dylan’s own iconic status from overwhelming the necessarily continuing focus on Petty in this chapter?
- (P) What other philosophical dualisms run parallel to Robert Hilburn’s notion of active versus passive bands? Are there some bands that defy this dualism?
- (W) This final section of the book relies more on lengthy block quotations than any other section. What is the strategy there and do you think it is successful?
- (M) The chapter on absurdity makes clear that Petty did read a lot of his own press. To what extent do you think musicians should read what is said about them in print or care about what is being said of them by music critics?
- (C) What are some of the meanings of the book’s title? What is it that Volpert is ultimately arguing Petty is an example of?