Re: How to learn about GG

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

>> He was too concerned with philanthropy.
>What exactly do you have in mind?

I'm not saying that he went off and founded the Glenn Gould
Society to Help Poor People and Fuzzy Critters. I don't
think his organizational skills went in those directions
anyway. (Translation: He would've made Ray do it.)

Also, I'm quite aware that in many ways, Glenn Gould was
self-centered. Creative people often are; they can't help it
because everything they _are_ is in their head. It's hard to
notice the outside world when those notes (or novels) are
bouncing around for attention.

Yet... people who knew GG from the time he was quite young
have remarked that he was aware that other people were worse
off than he was. I got the impression that he felt guilty
because he was better off than the homeless men he saw on
the city streets. And he wanted to help them. He often gave
money to the Toronto Humane Society. There's also the time
he gave a fairly large check to a musician who had just
moved (defected?) to Canada -- from Eastern Europe, I
believe -- I think he said this was because he knew how
hard it was to far from home and in a strange place.

Glenn Gould was a man of contradictions. Just look at the
varying opinions on this list! Was he a socialist? Or was he
a capitalist? Or was he someone who managed to combine both?
I know, some think it can't be done. But I've been through
elections where I liked both the progressive candidate and
the fiscally conservative one.

One good example of this contradiction in GG might be the
way GG talked about how much he felt sorry for the poor
children of Bermuda yet drove like a maniac on Bermuda's
narrow roads.

Also, how do we define philanthropy? Let's not forget that
many of the great philanthropists of the 19th and 20th
century made their money by exploiting workers!!! (Goodness,
I think I've been spending too much time reading Eric
Flint's SF novels. <g>)

Anne M. Marble