As Twitter conversations go, the one brewing between current indie it-girl Lana Del Rey and heir to alt-rock royalty (daughter of deceased Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain) Frances Bean Cobain is one of the more interesting, poignant ones out there. It started with an ill-advised quote Del Rey gave to The Guardian regarding her admiration of untimely death. She said “I wish I was dead already,” lauding the young deaths of musical luminaries like Cobain, Janis Joplin and Amy Winehouse. The article was published and Cobain’s daughter, Frances, used Twitter to accomplish that rarest of social media feats: thoughtful critique. Her response read in full ([sic] throughout):
the death of young musicians isn’t something to romanticize …I’ll never know my father because he died young & it becomes a desirable feat because ppl like u think it’s “cool” …Well, it’s [expletive] not. Embrace life, because u only get one life. The ppl u mentioned wasted that life. Don’t be 1 of those ppl …ur too talented to waste it away …I’m not attacking anyone. I have no animosity towards Lana, I was just trying to put things in perspective from personal experience.
Frances was only one year old when her father committed suicide. Del Rey has since offered a sheepish explanation for what certainly comes across as a glamorization of suicide …
