Cage's "Silence" and the su

[Stefan Schuber]

Couldn't (shouldn't?) we apply the point about "music as transcribed" to 
written words -- or even to words themselves? I'm not trying to 
deconstruct here; one could just as well recall Korzybski's dictim about 
the map and the territory. Perhaps music can't be performed exactly as 
scribed or transcribed, but the figural or figurative nature of language 
is such that it doesn't really *mean* what is written, but most people 
don't have trouble figuring out a phrase like "hot as hell."

Point is, if you don't want to descend into the Inferno of 
deconstructing, deferral, erasure, and all that jazz, then I think you 
have to acknowledge some process that is overdetermined and engagingly 
difficult to discuss.

ss