GG:Kazdin's book

[Mary Jo Watts <mwatts@rci.rutgers.edu>]

Andrew Kazdin's book is filled with pain, it is true.  But it's the
pain of rejection, that after 13 (?) years, a man he worked closely
with, a man who he'd served above and beyond the call of duty, would
suddenly, with no explanation, drop from his life without so much as a
thank you.  GG had always held Kazdin at working distance-- he never
confided in Kazdin. In fact he had little loyalty (in most people's sense of
the word) for the man.  A recording hiatus of a year was mysterious to
Kazdin who found out later that GG was suffering from agonizing ailments (real
or imagined) that prevented him from playing.  And when Kazdin left
CBS, GG disappeared from his life.  In the end Kazdin, bitter and
confused, didn't even go to GG's funeral and is left at the end of the
book asking Bruno Monsaingeon if GG ever said why he was dropped.
Surely, at least, he felt he deserved a watch or something! 

OK, so if this happened to any of us, we'd certainly be offended, pained,
searching for answers.  But does this mark Gould as a fellow with a
dark, dastardly side?  How many people would tell horror stories about
the callousness of any one of us?  In the book Kazdin makes himself
out to be so, well, saintly in the whole ordeal.  A quiet yes-man
doing GG's bidding. But there are clues-- AK mentions discussing CBS
politics with GG in great detail only to find GG lacking in enthusiasm
for AK's situation later on.  

The only thing the book "proved" to me about GG's character, is that
he wasn't the sort of person you'd invest your emotional needs with.
Want to talk middle period Beethoven or play guessing games?  GG was
your man.  Up until the crack of dawn playing with ideas over the
telephone? GG was your man.  But if you were concerned with emotional
commitment or even support? Doesn't appear that he had much to give.
I imagine keeping himself going was hard enough.  We're talking about
someone here who was addicted to Valium and god knows what else for
thirty years.  [I think it's bizarre he didn't hide the addiction--
it's almost like he used it to warn people.] 

I'm really looking forward to Peter Ostwald's book about GG _Glenn
Gould Ecstasy and Tragedy of a Genius_. [Sheduled for release in the
new year.] Ostwald was a psychiatrist and a musician who was the
director of the Health Program for Performing Arts at UCSF.  He was
also a good friend of GG's (who interviewed him for the Schoenberg
documentary.) 

I'm not sure what it says about me as a person, but I'm much
more interested in what GG thought about even Beethoven's 5th than how
he hurt and offended people.

-MJ