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Re: Nemo and others



Brilliant. . . a type of  'is genius madness' idea.  However is genius also intelligence?  Think it's rather savant - showing an exceptional focused talent, whether musical, scientific or practical, in a particular area.  With Evil Listeners, the madness/genius element is what the writer is basically getting at - trying to convey that a mad Bach-listening genius type is most fearful, as they seem more able to outsmart even the best of sleuths.  I would find a Black Sabbath-listening evil genius much scarier, actually hehe. . .
True re the ww2 films - although piano lessons were almost mandatory for children during that time, given the strong German musical history - therefore many proficient pianists lurked amongst the arian crowd.  Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann et al blared continuously over German airwaves during occupation - as a means of propaganda brainwashing. . .

Cheers!

I'm not too familiar with Gorecki - he's Polish, no?

Przemek Dolowy wrote:
Hello
There already was a topic to almost throw me back into the list (GG & Bjork), but now it's a passed thread.
Now I am back to greet everyone, particularly Elmer, who seems to be sort of engine animating the list. I never answered his question of Gorecki - more than a year ago, shame on me - but I've been the silent list-reader all the time.
As to the Evils Listening Classical, I'd add another theory: classical music is generally claimed sort of thing for the intelligent, so authors and movie-makers use it like spectacles worn by a "doctor" in an Aspirin TV commercial - to convince us of his power of brains... A question is whether it's a result of the authors and screenplay-writers' wrong ideas about Bach or their correct ideas about how spectators think of it. The spectacles in commercials do their work, why not the music?
Can't remember any closer details, but in some old Polish films taking the topic of WW2 there were Gestapo and Wehrmacht officers showing off their higher culture playing the piano. As we see, this idea is widespread.
But my candidate for Evil Listeners Number 1 is Alec, "Clockwork Orange". Though, I admit, he is an example of a thoughtless evil guy, not of a "brainer", so the Classical-Evil linkage shouldn't work in his case. The fact it does confirms its strenghth. On the other hand, if you know some facts about Burgess, the writer considered himself to be a connesseur of the classical music and he obsessively needed to express it.
Greetings to everybody,
Przemek Dolowy, Poland
PS. I have no Gorecki albums on my own, but a few months ago I was on a concert, there were, among others, his short songs for a choir. Close to heaven!