Re: GG: Angilette Book/GG's writing

[Kristen Immoor <kimmoor@mindspring.com>]

At 1:43 PM -0400 7/9/97, Mary Jo Watts wrote:
>And while I agree with Bradley that Gould's writing
>was often too self concious-- I
>think he used his own style as a protective smoke screen to mask several
>things-- perhaps a fear that people would find his ideas absurd--
>perhaps his own lack of formal education in philosophy and literature--
>who knows?  I take his writings very seriously in my own work-- but not
>so seriously as I do his radio scripts.

     Me personally, I take Gould's ideas quite seriously, but his writing I
take with grains of salt. After all, this is the same man who as a
schoolboy wrote essays like:

     "Far down, through the concrete channel, a myriad of flustered flotsam
floundered against a flurry of the windsquall...  From far up I saw a
vacillating abstract of surrealistic shape whose every minute movement only
multiplied my misconceptions of their unity. For I, a stranger to their
city, saw a mass - controlled, directed, pushed - as one. I felt the
incessant onward motion of the crowd, but I, aloof then, failed to see that
each small, separate movement was a symbol of their individuality..."

     I mean, there's an idea in there *somewhere*, right? ;-)
     Much like his punctilious counterpoint (and there's a fun combo to
say!) Glenn's verbiage was pointillistic, frequently emphasizing consonance
and alliteration, and his pronunciation was deliberate and rhythmic -
easily mimicked, as my significant other loves to demonstrate. I get the
distinct impression that with Glenn, the actual physical sound of the words
was just as important as their meaning, if not more so. Why else would he
have worked so tirelessly to perfect radio documentaries that many of his
own friends found unlistenable?
     When listening to GG speak (or reading his writing,) sometimes I just
have to think to myself "Oh come on, he only said that because it felt so
cool to say." Anyone who has heard his endearing/annoying soundbite in the
"Speak English/Speak French" performance piece will know exactly what I
mean. Having a lengthy conversation with Glenn must have been like synaptic
aerobics! When crystallized, though, Gould's writings yielded some
wonderful ideas. Who can forget the more famous quotes like "Art on its
loftiest mission is hardly human at all." Or "The really important things
in any biography are what someone thinks and feels and not what he has
done."

Kristen

______________________________________________________________________________

Perfectionist:  "Okay, high fast ball. Lenny Bernstein."
Performer:      "Bernstein? Why Bernstein?"
Perfectionist:  "Lenny is a pacifist who'd never run for office. I saw him
run for a cab once. Not pretty."

                                  -- "Glenn," David Young