Re: GG: Gould & competition

[kimmoor@mindspring.com (Kristen Immoor)]

At 5:25 PM 2/10/97, Alun Severn wrote:
>Has anyone else noted the contradiction in GG's attitude to competition? He
>loathed competitive behaviour and believed all forms of competition to be
>inherently corrupting; and yet, throughout his life, it is noted that he
>played the stock market -- the prime expression of capitalist competition
>-- extremely successfully....
>
>Another Gould oddity.

Yes, it is a bit of competition, but set apart by one very important Gouldy
quality: Blessed privacy. Unlike the more unpleasant public competitions,
in the market you just make the call, let the broker do the buy, and then
sit back and read the papers in wonderful anonymity. Gould kept so far
abreast of news items from around the world, I'm not surprised he was able
to amass a bit of money from the market. I mean, sitting alone listening to
a few radios and skimming an armload of newspapers you can pick up a few
interesting trends that might guide the world market. He was also a
politics buff, frequently said to have known more about US politics than
most Americans. Gould probably liked the challenge of the market from an
experimental perspective, like Katherine Lee said in her response, and when
he found out that with his keen eye/ear he could have more success than the
average dabbler he was probably pretty pleased with himself. I've never
heard reference to his having been selfish or arrogant with his stock
"ability," he made a few jokes in his letters about his willingness to
offer helpful market hints to the less-savvy players.   ...whether anyone
took him up on his offers I can't say offhand.


______________________________________________________________________________

Elyse Mach: "But do you think that if Beethoven came back to life he'd go
along with these notions of motif and tempo?"
Glenn Gould: "I don't really know, nor do I very much care..."