GG: The Ostwald Book -- Being Picky

["Anne M. Marble" <amarble@sff.net>]

OK, I know it has been in print for a while now, but I
think it's never too late to mention the Ostwald book.

It seems that every time I go to this book to check a fact
(or a supposition <g>), I walk away annoyed. Peter Ostwald
was obviously upset at Glenn Gould because GG had broken
off their acquiantanceship. (Unlike some of the book's reviewers, I hesitate to call it a friendship!)

Some reviewers have said that Ostwald kept his bias out of
the book. My reaction is... He did?! Sure, he didn't go out
of his way to tromp all GG in obvious ways. But in his tone,
wrapped in his sentences, you'll find plenty of disapproval.
For example, when he saw GG in the 1970s, GG was talking
about his writing and his radio documentaries. And Ostwald
made some kind of statement in the biography about how he
and Joe Stephens were disappointed that a great pianist was
putting so much effort into these projects that <gasp> had
nothing to do with playing the piano. (Well, sheesh, didn't he expect GG to want to branch out?)

It's obvious Ostwald didn't take GG's non-piano work
seriously, and that's a dang shame. At the Gathering,
somebody (maybe our own Mary Jo Watts?) said something
about how a biographer who didn't appreciate the
Solitude Trilogy wasn't an appropriate biographer for
GG. (If Mary Jo wasn't the one who said that, she _did_
applaud the comment. <g>)

Many sentences seem to have a somewhat bitter tone, but they conceal it in subtle ways. While it's not as obvious as the Kazdin book, it's probably even more annoying because with Kazdin, you know what you're getting. But with Ostwald, you're expecting a regular biography, free of bias,
and often, you don't get that.

Some of these the statements in Ostwald can "insinuate" themselves into your mind before you realize that you're reading opinion rather than fact. (As the notorious Gene Steinberg of the infamous Rockoids flameware on usenetwould say, "It's opinion masquerading as fact." <g>)


Anne M. Marble