misspoptart

Frownland

Conversing With Cage

Not sure if I'd say life changing, but it's definitely very close. Cage's book Silence, which is a series of lectures and his writings is great too, but this book is one of the most fascinating things I've ever read. It's comprised of several different interviews that Cage had given over the years, which are many because he was very open to interviews be it a college newspaper or a more prestigious interviewer. He discusses his music, his performances, his writings, mycology, social philosophy, and modern dance among other things.

"They're like a group of gangsters. They have no shame--when I came off the stage after one of those performances, one of them who had played badly shook my hand, smiled, and said, 'Come back in ten years; we'll treat you better.' They turn things away from the music, and from any professional attitude toward music, to some kind of social situation that is not very beautiful."
-John Cage on the New York Philharmonic

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.