GG and minutiae

[Bradley P Lehman <bpl@umich.edu>]

I joked:
>The meeting will now come to order--who's taking the infinitesimal
>minutae?

Oops.  Minutiae.

These details *do* matter.  Even if they're relatively insignificant, when
they're wrong it's distracting...just like Gould's treatment of ornaments
in Bach, or the convoluted sentences in his writing.  They call attention
to their own strangeness (is "unorthography" a word?) detracting from the
beauty of the line.  They do contribute to uniqueness.

Gould wouldn't be troubled by such minutiae as choosing an edition of the
"Art of Fugue" to play from, or finishing a bottle of ketchup.