Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Carl Heppenstall <>]

I also wonder whether or not the interest is simply related to artists
needing to be informed of all of the current movements in the other arts
regardless of any true appreciation for what is interesting.

Regards,
Carl


-----Original Message-----
From: Ed Crooks 
[mailto:]
 
Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2012 5:12 AM
To: 

Subject: [silence] Re: Fwd: Finnegans Wake


Another thing to bear in mind is that Cage frequently found ways to like
materials that appealed to him, even if that meant ignoring some aspects of
that material or creatively reimagining it. Cage's interpretations of
Duchamp or Satie, Thoreau or Suzuki, are not the only ones that are possible
but are among a range of interpretations. Just as Stanley Cavell's
interpretation of Thoreau differs considerably from Cage's interpretation,
Norman O. Brown's interpretation of Joyce differs from Cage's. Brown's
interest in the Wake, like Joseph Campbell's, was motivated in part by
different concerns to those that drove Cage (see Christopher Shultis's paper
'A Living Oxymoron: Norman O.
Brown's Criticism of John Cage', Perspectives of New Music 44(2), 66-87).
With a work as fecund with possible interpretations as Finnegans Wake it
isn't surprising that are many paths through the work and many possible
destinations!
It's also worth remembering that Cage's interest in Joyce and Finnegans Wake
predated his friendship with Brown by several decades.

best,
Ed Crooks