Scholarly discussion of the music of John Cage.

[Andrew Culver <>]

Good find, Stefano.

I believe John would have considered this a mistake, and would have considered fixing it by removing "am I doing something wrong".

As it is, the answer is: "Yes, John, you are doing something wrong."

Which makes it right, or at least positive, hmmm?

Nice.

Would he have allowed this rule-pun to survive? Why not?

This should not be taken, however, as an invitation to relax the rules at will. Cage considered them essential, and both he and I spent many hours proofing mesostics and removing or reworking rule-breaking passages. And the software Jim Rosenberg and I wrote were inflexible rule-enforcers.

Recall the desire to find a way of writing that is not about ideas, but produces them. With respect to the source text, the function of the rules is to strip away extant meaning, while simultaneously brushing words against each other in unexpected combinations, thus releasing new meanings.

Andrew Culver

On 2013.04.10, at 04:15 , Stefano Pocci wrote:

On 04/10/2013 08:18 AM, Dionysis Boukouvalas wrote:

It's been years, but - simply put - in the first line, am I not looking for a "J" without an "O"?
Unless you mean without an "E" as well. But this is the very first line of the poem. In a second mesostic I would care for the "E" too. But for the first line, wouldn't that make sense only if the text would be read cyclically? I don't recall Cage's rule on the first line though and I might have it wrong.

I believe that Cage used the stricter rules for works such as the "Writing through..." series, but that he would 'relax' those rules on other occasions. Could it be?

For example, he wrote this mesostic for Eckhart:


                    Meister Duchamp or living on water

                      to reach the iMpossibility
                               in thE presence
                            of two lIke
                              objectS
                                    To
                                 makE
                            the memoRy imprint

                follow your principlEs and keep straight on
                           you will Come to the right place
                                    Keep emptiness in view
              not wondering am I rigHt or am I doing something wrong
                                  thAt is the way
                               to foRge ahead
                                  wiThout a qualm

                         (John Cage - April 1991)



On the 4th line of the second part there is an A in "am" which is not supposed to be there because of the A in "thAt", according to the 50% rule. Correct?

I understand that 'real' mesostics imply the respect of those compositional rules, nevertheless, as I also like their inner graphical quality, I don't mind violating those rules sometimes.

For sure it is a challenge to find the right words that fit and that I like too :-)


Stefano