Re: WARNING: This discussion could be deadly!

[Jim Morrison <jim_morrison@sprynet.com>]

Hi guys, just a few more notes from me and I'm bowing out of this
conversation because I think that the most loquacious contributors to this
thread (me and Birgitte) are having real trouble understanding each other.
Birgitte's replies to my comments seem like such distortions and
over-simplifications of my positions that I can't help but wonder if I'm not
doing the same to Birgitte's comments.  I'd just like to go on the record as
saying that Birgitte has not addressed what I meant, though Birgitte (sorry
to keep using the proper name but I don't know the proper gender and so
can't use him or her) may being replying to what I actually wrote.

I don't think Gould was a perfect person (who is?) though I do think he was
a good man.  He could have used some help and improvement in his personal
life.

I don't even think all his records are perfect (GASP)  and they could have
used some improvement and guidance and assistance just as his personal life
could hvae.

I don't think all his phobias and valiums were essential to his well being
and genius.  I don't believe he needed all those coats or had to play in
that old chair, or had to play on a Yamaha piano, nor hang up on his
"friends" when he heard they had a cold and thought he might catch it over
the phone.

I don't believe humans thrive in isolation.  As a matter of fact I think
humans who live alone die at a younger age than those who live with others.

I don't believe our fates are totally  predetermined, but I do believe
heredity and environment play a significant  part in determining who we are.

I believe some of our decisions are our own, though some are not (take
decisions made on drugs for what I take to be a clear example)

And I don't believe people can be friends with people they've never meet or
communicated with.  I don't believe we can be friends with a dead man
(though we might have been when he was alive.)  And hence I don't really
believe Bach was Gould's friend, that was sort of a joke, though I do
suspect Gould spent more time with Bach and his compositions than with live
people.

My real friends would be pretty upset with me if I thought our relationship
was commensurable with the relationship I have with a dead pianist.

I wish Gould had know love and family, perhaps even domestic bliss for a
while so that he could have made a really educated informed decision on
which sort of life he preferred.

And having had a real live breathing soul mate, there no way I'd give her up
to lead the life of Gould's artistic genius.

How many of you out there with families and significant others and great
children and great parents and great friends would trade your lives for
Gould's?  How many of you wish they would lead Gould's life?

I find it impossible to believe, and this may be my limitation, that people
having tasted great depths of interdependent relationships would trade it
for the solitary artistic life that Gould lead.


My apologies to the list members who I may be misrepresenting.

Now as a peace offering to Kate and Birgitte, would they mind starting
another thread and mentioning their favorite single movements of Gould's
Bach?

I'll start with mine.

The final variation of the 55 Goldbergs: the quodlibet.   I must have heard
20 different version of that peice and Gould's 55 is my favorite.  It's
related, I think, to the Capricco of the Partita in c minor.



Jim