GG: Gould and the Western Society

[SOC95JTH@lustudat.student.lu.se (Joakim Thelander)]

Hello from Sweden!

I'm a student of socialpsychology at Lund University. Ever since my piano
teacher showed me the video version of "The Goldberg Variations" I've been
fascinated by Glenn Gould. So now I plan to write a paper about him: a
socialpsychological biography.

I hope I'm not crossing any lines here (I've never written to any
mailing-list before) but I would really appreciate some comments about the
main idea I have for my paper. (I haven't read everything in the f_minor
arcive yet so I hope I'm not just "digging up old bones".)

After reading quite a lot about Gould, I think I have a good "angle". Here
it is, in very short form:

Gould has often been portrayed as an excentric, sometimes even as a
lunatic. In my paper I want to show that this was not the case. Quite
contrary I believe that Gould was very much a product of his time, and of
the culture and social relations where he was raised and lived in. Consider
some of the Gouldian "trademarks": his fascination and appreciation of
technology; his moral fixation (he repeatedly referred to himself as "the
last Puritan"; the discrepancy between word and action (he called himself a
socialist but played the market); his body fixation and neurotic behavior
(the hypochondriac); his isolation and preference for communicating by
using the phone and not face to face (he would have loved mobile phones and
e-mail); his drug abuse; his fear of strong emotions and preference for
rationality. And so on.

These are some examples which I think shows Gould to be very much a part of
a western, capitalistic culture. There may be things about Gould that are a
bit harder to fit into my scheme. But viewing him this way should hopefully
add to an understanding of his life and work. As the sociologist Philip
Abrams put it: "Individual lives are indeed unique but their uniqueness, I
suggest, is not a matter of some elusively private factors but of the
diversity of movement available to historically located individuals within
historically located social worlds."

In my paper I will, of course, have to elaborate my assertions
considerably, and try to verify them in a scientific way.

At last, again: comments and reflections would be very much appreciated.

Joakim Thelander

PS. I plan to call my paper "Glenn Gould: essensen av en gåta" (in english:
"Glenn Gould: Essence of an Enigma") after the tancovered book with blank
pages that was found among Gould's belongings. This of course provided that
I really do find some essence DS.

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Joakim Thelander
Augustenborgsgatan 16 D
214 47 Malmö

Telefon: 040-92 14 12
E-post: SOC95JTH@lustudat.student.lu.se
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