Re: Clarification

[Paige Poe <Viviandarkbloom3@aol.com>]

Since everyone has been delurking--is that the correct term?--lately, I
thought I might, too. I have been on the list for a few weeks and am a
relative newcomer to Gould himself--a serious listener of about only a year,
but I am practically a child, so I don't feel too left out.
There were a few things about this "clarification" that made me think a
little bit. I've known many people involved in various art forms who reminded
one of Sir Nigel Twitt-Thornwaite, and this "perverse" comment, unless it was
sarcastic, struck me as something a person like that--should I say, with
those sorts of opinions--might say. And I'm not attempting to start any sort
of argument; I'm coming to this with practically no knowledge of classical
music. What I'm wondering is, how far is too far in the classical spectrum?
Where do you draw the line between a valid artistic interpretation with merit
and--well, whatever might constitute musical perversity? Or is this (what
I've always thought) simply a matter of taste?
Incidentally, I came to really love Gould through reading the Ostwald
biography. I did not, however, love the biography. It's been troubling me for
some time, as I re-read it, that exactly the sort of psychoanalyzation that
was some people's trouble with Asperger's syndrome (and mine, too) was
streaked throughout the book. I also got the feeling that perhaps Ostwald and
Gould weren't as close and Ostwald would have liked to think. I wondered if
anyone else had probelms with this book, because I didn't want to feel like a
schmuck.
One psychological quirk I thought Gould may have had was synaesthesia. Would
this have anything to do with his sensitivity to color? I'm a lot like that
myself--certain colors make me absolutely nauseated.
I have had so much fun reading the posts to this list, which I enjoy very
much.

Sincerely, &c.,
Paige Poe