28 ene 2009

Can you develop a liking for for the unlike? A taste for things that, in the normal course of events, you would not like? What's the limit on this? I try deliberately to stretch myself. Since I already like all sorts of supposedly difficult-to-like things, that doesn't really count. Though in this case the liking is not always natural, intuitive, but involves a learning process. The next avant-garde writer you read will teach you how to read her, and you may or may not like it, in the end. For me, the process is more difficult say, with learning to like earlier styles of jazz that are more "corny" sounding. It's a process of blocking certain reaction so that I can hear the music as what it is, rather than trying to judge it. This ability to block out certain kinds of judgment is extremely significant. Once you learn the trick, then a whole nother world opens up.

The same with a more traditional, but very well-done article. Once you stop trying to see it as an article you would have liked to write, you can develop a deeper appreciation. There's a maturity factor here too: when I was younger I was much more dismissive of many more things. This was actually a less perceptive mode than the one I'm in now.

Spend a week listening to a style of music that you can tolerate but is not your favorite. (For me this would be straight ahead classic rock, for example.) Then a second week of a musical style that tests your limits of toleration. Report back on your findings.

1 comentario:

Jordan dijo...

"A whole nother" is one of my favorite constructions. "A Half Nother" on the other hand would be an apt title for half of the poetry books published in America.