Re: Another Hypothetical Question about GG (more trivial this time)

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

Anne Marble wrote:-
>
> Now I've got a nice "fluffy" hypothetical question. If you
> had the (sadly hypothetical) chance to meet Glenn Gould...
> would you let him drive?! :-O

Ah, we are back with our hypothetical time machine...

If I had the chance of meeting Glenn Gould I would have cast aside all fears
and leapt happily into the passenger seat beside him.  As a time-traveller,
I would have tried to be logical about the whole matter; since   I  _know_
he never injured himself  ( or as far as I know, any other  poor innocent )
, I'd have reasoned that I would be OK.  Anyway, I have to admit I quite
enjoy fast driving - not, of course, that the British laws or my old car
permit such delights, but I did once take a Formula Ford round Brands Hatch
-  and if Glenn's hairaising style of driving did induce fear of imminnent
death, I'd ask if _I_  could drive _him_ ! Since he seems to have been  a
world-class control freak, he would without doubt refuse my kind offer.
Probably just as well.  Anyway,  I would consider the prospect of  sudden
annihilation to be a small price to pay for the pleasure of his
company....assuming that  he himself would escape unscathed....

I presume Lancelot and Longfellow did not have manual gear shift, in which
case I guess  it might just have been possible for him to have driven with
his legs crossed, but I have never seen anyone else attempt this,  and I
hope I never do.

I would accompany Glenn to his retreat in Wawa, maybe,  leave the car and
the traffic and the  people behind us,   and walk with him by the lake shore
under a suitably Gouldian grey and vast empty sky; and stand  beneath dark
trees by the waterfall  listening to its multiple sounds, and  watch him
conducting all the forces of nature with ecstatic arms.
I know this is not original (Lawrence McDonnell  has just described
something similar in his post, so I apologise for being repetitive)  ....
but oh, what a beautiful dream it is!

Please, someone, invent that time machine.

Kate