Music critics Ben Ratliff and Alex Ross were online at Washingtonpost.com on Thursday, Nov. 8, to chat with readers about the state of jazz, pop, and classical . An unedited transcript follows.

Alex’s Fan Club: Alex Ross, I adore you and want to buy many copies of your book in hardcover and have you inscribe them all to me—but did you know you’re doing your Politics Prose appearance the same night Dmitri Hvorostovsky is at Strathmore? And while you are clearly the superior human being in every other way, that Dmitri really can sing . This creates a serious dilemma.

Alex Ross: Thank you so much! Although I will be singing a selection of twentieth-century opera arias at my Politics Prose reading, including Lulu’s death shriek from “Lulu” (transposed down), Hvorostovsky is indeed serious competition. But I should be at the store a little on the early side, if that’s any help… _______________________ Falls Church , Va. : There’s a fundamental dishonesty at the heart of your dialogue this week.

You purport to be discussing “how can we attract more people to the cutting edge of music?” but you don’t really want that. If too many people discover a particular avant-garde form, it by definition becomes mainstream. The whole point of being on the cutting edge is to exclude others and hold oneself apart.