Re: Peter Ostwald's book.

[Kate Clunies-Ross <goldbergs@TALK21.COM>]

Original question from Sara Meneses:-

>> I am new member and i wanted to ask a question: To those
>> who have read "Ecstasy and tragedy of a genius" by Peter
>> Ostwald, what do you think about that book?
>
Its an interesting book, and as Ostwald  was a psychiatrist as well as a
musician, it does give us a startling picture  of one of the overwhelming
concerns of Gould's life: his intense and continuous worry concerning his
health.

 Yet Ostwald does not really offer any great insight into Gould's own view
of himself.He certainly does not offer any suggestion of   diagnosis,
although there are some vague musings (yes, he mentions Aspergers, that
syndrome we have all argued about before!) without any detailed discussion.
In fact, like many others, he seems to dismiss Gould's concerns as just
being the exaggerations of a hypochondriac. Whilst I think Gould certainly
had a hypochondriac's obsession with his health, this does not rule out the
fact that he may truly have been ill at times; hypochondriacs may not just
imagine all their symptoms! And Gould did, after all, collapse and die of a
stroke, for which (according to Ostwalds account) no definite cause was
discovered at autopsy.

Apart from medical concerns, Ostwald concentrates mostly on the music, with
very little details about Gould's private life. And this is how it should
be, given Goiulds  love of privacy and notorious reluctance to let outsiders
know about his life. But this does not stop Ostwald passing certain
judgements about his subject, most prominent mong these being that the man
was totally egocentric, This stress on Gould's self-centredness seems to
clash with other accounts I have read, which describe the man as kind, warm
and funny, even if he found it near-impossible to form very close
relationships. And as for being celf-centred and obsessed about his music
and his work, well yes; of course he was; this is what his  whole life was
about, and its something for which we should be very grateful !

I think the whole of Ostwald's book is coloured by the fact that some five
years before his death, Gould cut off his friendship with him. Ostwald tells
us of their last meeting, in 1977, and incidently mentions that even  _that_
meeting took place ten years after the  last time they had met. It would
appear therefore that Ostwald was not such a close friend of Gould's as he
would have us think, and this renders some of his ideas a bit suspect, at
least to me.In fact some of his comments, whilst not overtly antagonistic,
seem to demonstrate something of the bitterness of a "lover scorned", if
thats not trying to stretch a metaphor too far!

The book gives a good account of Gould's work, and the public aspects of his
life. But I don't know that Ostwald captures the essence of the man. But
then....re Glenn Gould.....Who does?

Kate