IVIV music

[Mark Kohut]

One might say--I might say---Pynchon finds ways, metaphors to point to the 'simply human'--what we've mostly lost. 



--- On Wed, 1/13/10, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV music
> To: "Carvill, John" <john.carvill at sap.com>
> Cc: "Joseph Tracy" <brook7 at sover.net>, "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Wednesday, January 13, 2010, 11:01 AM
> To the extent that Pynchon might be
> vilifying recorded music as
> another "pornography", he would only be demonstrating a
> level of
> old-fogeyism and a woebegone penchant for pining after some
> lost, past
> purity.  I understand his "lamentations" over numerous
> forms of
> "pornography" in GR, but none of them were ever meant to be
> taken
> literally.  Ultimately Pynchon's pornographies in GR
> refer to (the
> advent of) human consciousness in contrast to the purity of
> an
> animal-like pre-conscious unfiltered experience, maybe a
> Nirvana.
> 
> The literalists among us can only tie themselves up in
> hypocritical
> and illogical arguments to support something never meant to
> be taken
> so by Pynchon.  Pynchon loves his polemics, but he
> always includes
> their counters.
> 
> David Morris
> 
> On Wed, Jan 13, 2010 at 9:32 AM, Carvill, John <john.carvill at sap.com>
> wrote:
> > I found that whole 'listening booth' scene very
> puzzling.
> >
> > Obviously there is the modern-day resonance. But even
> a jaundiced view of today's popular music environment would
> have to include at least some positives. Yes, people are
> walking around plugged into their iPods, engrossed in their
> own digital music libraries, etc. But then there are all
> those music websites, blogs, streams, giveaways, etc. Not to
> mention the wonderful world of file sharing, peer-to-peer
> networks, bittorrents, etc. All of these enable people to
> share music much more easily and, a lot of the time, at
> little or no cost, except of course for the baseline cost of
> internet access.
> >
> > I never thought of listening booths as isolating or in
> any way negative, quite the opposite, although by the time I
> was buying records such booths were long gone. I don't
> really 'get' what Pynchon seems to be saying about the shift
> from 'free and communal' to 'commercial and isolating'. I
> don't think those divisions really work the way they appear
> to be presented. I realize I can't claim to know what
> Pynchon is trying to say, that's why I say I don't
> understand what he *seems* to be getting at. Was rock n roll
> ever free? There were some free music festivals, though just
> how cost-free (literally or otherwise) they ever were is
> open to question, surely. I think this subject was discussed
> here before.
> >
> > Can a shift from rock concerts/festivals, to buying
> records, really be seen as negative? To me, the record was
> the heart of rock n roll, and for a lot of bands the live
> performances they gave were often significantly less
> important, to their own self-image, than how their records
> sounded. A-and, the owning of each record was a key part of
> the listening experience. You could make a cassette copy of
> a record, and that would certainly be a very acceptable
> alternative, but ideally you wanted the original - the
> vinyl, the sleeve art, etc. Which is one of the reasons that
> digital formats - from CDs to MP3s - always seemed less
> special.
>