#1067

I think it’s more the academic reception of serialism, the reduction of it to formula and then the elevation of this formula over all other approaches to music that I can’t stand. But this was nowise the intention of the actual serialist or twelve-tone composers.

Above all, Schoenberg was a mystic, his move to atonality (the name of which he hated, preferring “cantonal”) was inspired by the deeply mystical and fiercely anti-modern poetry of Stefan George and the Munich Cosmic Circle, even later compositions like Moses und Aron were deeply religious works, he also developed many ideas out of a lifelong correspondence with Kandinsky who had a similar orientation and wrote extensively (On the Spiritual in Art… still a classic text)… so pantonality or the twelve-tone system only really is in this context, it was never meant to be abstracted or thought independently of it. All of this holds for Stockhausen as well, all the things for which he was ridiculed, his self-identified extraterrestrial origins, the Urantia material etc. are but the essential keys to his music! so actually I don’t mind serialism… I think it’s more the way it’s taught and reproduced which has led to all the problems, but this may be a problem with modern Western music history in general…

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#1068

Probably a bit rudimentary for a forum like this, but I just finished Art and Fear and it was phenomenal.

Really condensed and amazing for anyone curious about artistic expression.

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#1069

It was this forum that introduced that book to me. I loved it :heart_eyes:

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#1070

:slight_smile: Reading my comment again, it’s silly to say it may be “rudimentary” but that came from a place of reading the forums and seeing people that talked about creating in much the same way.

Do you have any suggestions for books like this? My SO is reading The Artist’s Way but it doesn’t seem to check the same boxes. I love how efficient the writing was in A&F.

#1071

Agnes Martin Writings… she speaks poetically, so it may take some time for things to sink in… but it’s basically all you’ll need.

The full text is on archive.org. https://archive.org/stream/AgnesMartinWritings/Agnes%20Martin%20-%20Writings%20-%20Agnes%20Martin_djvu.txt

The book is rare and can be quite expensive.

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#1072

Maybe this one?

As I recall I didn’t fully agree with everything, but there was some good stuff in there.

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#1073

currently a graduate student (architecture, not philosphy). this essay is fascinating / gratifying / terrifying to me as I have a muddled go of it.

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#1074

Thanks again for the reminder to check this out. I’ve had On the Perfection Underlying Life open in a tab for months…it’s time.

I’ve been on a terrific fiction tear since the new year.

The Plains (Gerald Murnane)
Unknown to me until late last year, Murnane is hitting something of a stride right now in North American literary circles with the publication of his stories, Stream System, along with a few novels. I started with what is perhaps his most renowned work, The Plains, a mysterious and oblique piece that I’m still wrapping my head around. It feels like there’s something essential being related about the creative process in this, but as I try to grasp it, it shimmers into nothingness out there on the horizon of Murnane’s world and words…

Melancholy of Resistance (László Krasznahorkai)
A formally stunning novel on encroaching fascism at the edge of somewhere. I found this fantastic – the final section, and in particular the last sentence, is one of the great unsettling experiences I’ve had as a reader. Honestly, I’m struggling for words. It’s one of those pieces, like the best of Kafka, that feels like falling into an abyss.

The Mars Room (Rachel Kushner)
This was actually kind of the perfect follow-up to Krasznahorkai. I really gelled with the terseness of Kushner’s prose and some of her more experimental moves. The level of detail she brings to her examination of the American prison system is amazing on its own, but she takes things a step further with a formal structure that incorporates multiple voices, Thoreau, snippets from Ted Kaczynski’s diaries…a strange mix, but it works.

The Houseguest (Amparo Dávila)
Love me a good New Directions paperback, and picked this one up based on the description: “Kafka by way of Ogawa, Aira by way of Carrington, Cortazár by way of Somers.” A collection of creepy stories in which characters are terrorized by forces that Dávila never defines as clearly human, animal or imaginary. I really loved some of these, but the general motifs and methods ended up feeling a little stale halfway through.

And now, currently reading…

Nocilla Trilogy (Agustín Fernández Mallo)
From what I understand, these three books - Nocilla Dream, Nocilla Experience and Nocilla Lab - are pretty critical in the contemporary Spanish literary scene, and they were just published here in the US last week. Digging Dream so far…

I’ve also been intrigued by a small UK press, Fitzcarraldo Editions, which seems to be putting out some great off-the-beaten-path fiction and essays. Ordered a few and will dive into them hopefully in the next couple of months.

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#1075

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A trio of new books, none of which I’ve read before. Where to start?

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#1076

All 3 of those are soooo great! I’d dive right in to Neuromancer. :slight_smile:

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#1077

FE is really great. super people too. i’m eyeballing nocilla too but a few of my goodreads pals have me worried it’ll be too pomo for pomo sake for me.

i just finished a reread of pynchons vineland which was the only TP i’d only read once. it’s kinda written off as tier C pynchon but i think that’s a product of when it was published and joyless literati culture

i’m nearing halfway through joseph mcelroy’s women and men right now (third reading, my favorite novel) - doing a super close read with an eye towards maybe working on a primer/reader text with a friend of mine at some point

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#1078

Just finished, after a long slow read, David Toop’s beautifully written and uniquely well researched 1995 book “Ocean of Sound”. I cant praise it highly enough. So much lore and poetic musings in this opinionated and charming book. I did notice one error, that persists in the 2018 Serpent’s Tail paperback edition… Walter Murch was not the sound designer for Taxi Driver as Toop states. It was the late Frank Warner, who should be better known than he is. Even with that I found the book extremely informative and thought provoking.

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#1079

Would love to hear any particular recommendations! Picked up Flights (Tokarczuk), River (Kinsky) and Insane (Goetz)…

Yeah, I’m a little burned out on it. I think the second volume is the most successful, and I was quite into it this week, but the last volume, Lab, opens with a 60-page sentence that makes me wish I was just reading Bernhard instead. Here, it feels derivative, grating and unearned.

#1080

definitely the annie ernoux stuff - “the years” is my fav thing they’ve published. also

keith gessen - “a terrible country”
esther kinsey - “river”

all of it is great imo- excellent curation

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#1081

oh i see you already mentioned river hehe - it’s great!

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#1082

just absolutely raced through YOUR FAVORITE BAND CANNOT SAVE YOU by scotto moore, a horror tale about the Next New Sound that’s got everyone abuzz… sici-fi-as-music-blogging. lovecraftian, laugh-out-loud funny, and a little too real… chapters are sequenced as the tracks on the album.

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#1083

While unpacking some boxes I came across this book. It was an interesting read as a historical piece, not necessarily anything that will allow the reader to glean any new techniques. It’s a fascinating look at the very early days of electronic music and tape music.

I’d be happy to give / permaloan / mail it to anyone that’s interested. (I’m in the US.) Maybe that person could do the same when they’re done with it.

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#1084

hi everyone, general question about books.
i’m writing my master thesis for university about music, composition, community and live sharing performances.
do you have books to suggest me?
some books about “history” of electronic and computer music?
do you thing I should open a post about it? would it interest you?

#1085

So over a decade ago i snatched this illustrated ‚Book of probes‘ which is basically probes by the great Marshall McLuhan illustrated by David Carson at a closing of a bookstore for very cheap…its a thick illustrated art edition which i would never have bought on purpose. Having known McLuhan i was intrigued…
I keep coming back to this book seeing how incredibly urgent these probes are at present (some having being discussed in the 50s😳) and how the overall styling by Carson is so outdated being the millenia type of ‚creative‘ mishmash of fonts and tings😂

Here‘s an excellent probe:
‚Man works when he is partially involved. When he is totally involved he is at play or at leisure‘
:heart::heart::heart:

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#1087

Just finished The Rise and Fall Of D.O.D.O.
Lots of fun. Classic Stephenson and it uses a really interesting format for telling the story.

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