Fwd: Re: Canadian-spotting: 3 essential facts

[Kate Clunies-Ross <katecluniesross@hotmail.com>]

Jim Morrison wrote:

> > Who were his friends?
> But really, I'm uncomfortable talking about Gould's personal life and
> the>nature of friendship
.......
> Who did Gould listen to?  Who did he sacrifice for? What group,
> however>small, but more than one, was he a member of?  Who helped him with
> his>hyprochondria?  Who helped him with his drug addication?  Who did HE
> help in times of crisis?  Who did HE listen to for hours on the phone with
> THEY needed someone to talk to?
>
> What I'm saying is I think Gould, from what I can tell  from my limited
> research, was never involved in a significant inter-dependent/supportive
> relationship, and that lack of a deep reciprocal commissary relationship is
> related to some oddities/problems in his personality.
> I hope this doesn't offend anyone, but I think there's something wrong
> with>a pianist that loved to be recorded but for whatever reasons refused
> to play>in front of, say, more than 30 people.

Well, it doesnt offend me. Dould's personal life _is_ of interest, if only
because his personality so affected his work. I agree that there was
something "wrong"....but not in the sense that he was in any way at fault,
or that his aloneness was a conscious choice on his part. I think that any
"wrongness" in his nature was totally outside his control.
In an interview after his death, his cousin Jessie (who possibly was his
closest confidante) said that he was the lonliest man she had ever met.
However Gould himself, when asked once if he if he ever felt lonely, stated
categorically that he did not; he said that he had difficulty understanding
what the word meant, or empathising with those who felt loneliness. (I dont
have the tape of the interview here with me, but I think he said that if
someone told him they were dying of loneliness, he would sympathise, as he
would if they said they were dying of leukaemia; but that he didnt really
understand the feeling himself.)
The point is, asking Glenn Gould if he felt lonely was a bit like asking a
fish what it feels like to be wet.What can it possibly compare its
sensations with? It has never experienced dryness! Similarly, Gould seems,
as you say, never to have experienced closeness to another human being.
That, I suppose, is why I have seen writers refer to his life as 'tragic'
and 'unhappy'. But I dont think Gould himself would have said this. After
all, if you dont _know_ that you are unhappy, then presumably ,in a very
real sense, you are not unhappy! Gould was a very private man; we dont have
any way of judging how he really felt, if he yearned for a different kind of
existence,(including more emotional contact) or if he was truly content with
the way he was.
Personally, I dont think he ever experienced true joy,(I am not talking
about his art here) and as I like the guy, and am eternally grateful for the
joy his music brings me, that makes me sad. But if he could read this, he"d
no doubt shake his head with puzzlement that I should see him in such a
light!
I think that to understand Gould, we have to view him using his own
standards, which are not necessarily ours.
And no, I don't think "Heaven is other people". I'm right there with GG on
that one!

Kate

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