E: No I don't brush my teeth with baking soda. . .
Excellent!Originally Posted by Lykren
Noabout 70%.
I'm listening to the Tallis Fantasia on your say-so right now, by the way.
Do you like the taste of mint mouthwash?
Not a big fan of the taste of mint mouthwash.
What's the latest thing you've read?
Plutarch's Life of Fabius Maximus--I'm slowly reading an unedited complete Plutarch.
Same question.
The Beggar Maid (Who Do You Think You Are in Canada)
Coral (the color) or lilac?
Coral the color. Gorgeous. The exoskeleton thing is nice too.
What kind of sea mammal do you most closely relate to?
These cuties:
What did you read as a kid?
Tolkien, Rowling, lots of Disney comics (Barks, Rosa in particular).
Same question.
Also Tolkien, Lewis, L'Engle, Pullman, Rowling, just tons and tons of fantasy, crap and otherwise.
Wait, North Star, you read Rowling as a kid? How old are you, if you don't mind me asking?
What games did you like to play as a kid?
24.
I played some SNES games, some card games.
Who's your favourite living composer?
You're the only person qualified to answer that, but as I said before, I do like some Pärt.
Is there a reality beyond social construction?
I'm not sure (partly because I haven't heard too much of it) how good Pärt's more recent work is. Silvestrov is one you should check out, and one I need to investigate in more depth. Others include György Kurtág, although I don't know if he's composed much lately.
Some that have died during the past ten years: Ligeti, Dutilleux, Elliott Carter, Henze, Ronald Stevenson (whose Passacaglia on DSCH is among the grandest piano pieces ever written). And Boulez has written some very good music, although he has written very little in total. Electronic music is an area I haven't explored in much depth yet.
And yes there is, but it's not possible to experience it.
Whose poetry should I read now? I got two nice anthologies in the mail this week. (Hulse & Rae's The 20th C. in Ptry, Moore's Penguin Book of Am. Vse)
Her:
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-imaginary-iceberg/
and him:
http://www.poemhunter.com/best-poems...f-limestone-3/
I feel the same way about reality, though I also can't quite accept it.
Does complexity necessarily have more potential than simplicity?
Ah, Auden and Bishop. Nice choices.
The potential of complexity vs. simplicity? Complex things have more variables, but the difference between, say, two orchestra configurations is often much smaller than that between two trios - a piano trio and some wind trio, for example. To quote the composer Roger Sessions' paraphrasing of Einstein: "I also remember a remark of Albert Einstein, which certainly applies to music. He said, in effect, that everything should be as simple as it can be but not simpler." Complex things should be complex only because they demand it - i.e., a scientific theory must be presented as clearly and simply as possible, but not more simply than that (well, to some audiences, of course), and likewise, writing, music, painting, photograph, whatever, shouldn't be obscured by unnecessary complexity, irrelevant details. Simpler expression has greater potential than complex ones. Think of all those catchy melodies of Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, Schubert, Chopin etc etc. They all mastered every technical aspect of composing music, but it's those melodies that made them great, in the end. Think of a haiku, think of Whitman - there is something simple in every great artistic expression, for that's what it essentially is, showing the essence of something.
Auden or Bishop?
Auden by a good deal. Read both of course.
Have you read Proust? I'm obsessed with him right now. I bring him up because I think he is an unusual counterexample to your valid point; he reveals the complicated heart of things, the great fugue of perception that is the link between the experiential and the real.
Do you write poetry?
I haven't read Proust, apart from small snippets. I should, though - but again, I'm always a bit less keen to read a translation to a second language, but then again, my English is about as good as my Finnish.
I don't think of myself as even aspiring to be an amateur writer, but it's only natural that reading inspires one to write.
I wrote this earlier this year, and a couple of entries in the poetry competitions here.
The tree is unlit,
And all that is left at dawn,
Is the Christmas table -
The celebrators have split.
Once again a year has gone,
And the same old fable
Goes on and on.
I saw from your blog post that you do. Written anything recently?
Oh, my blog -- that horror
Yeah I have. I'm trying to publish so I'm not posting them on here but if you're curious I can PM something to you.
Have you ever felt religious, even briefly?
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote