it goes like this / the fourth, the fifth

[ironymaiden]

i just finished Grand Obsession. the nytimes review covers it well. i had my doubts about the book, since the author is apparently batshit crazy and if i knew her in real life i would have trouble dealing with her. yet she hooked me early on and kept me engaged with her curious combination of dancing about architecture and Modern Marvels.

Knize and i share a sort of musical functional illiteracy - i don't read and count very well because i rely on hearing and feeling instead. and she discovers, as i did, that one can only get so far in the piano repertoire by repeating a section until it is memorized. (i burst into tears reading the passage where her teacher explains that she's been bullshitting up to this point - because no one ever caught me and told me what was wrong.) sometimes i miss playing the piano, and the book evokes everything i loved (and much of what i hated) about it. plus i can't resist knowing how something is made, and the why of it. it was deeply satisfying.

Comments

[e-bourne.livejournal.com]

It sounds fascinating and speaks to my biggest blind (deaf?) spot. I don't understand music. I enjoy it. I can't read it, and lord knows, people have tried to teach me. It hurts my head.

Perhaps I was scarred when my grandmother looked at my tiny little hands and said piano lessons would be wasted. I'm the only grandchild who didn't get lessons.

So music fascinates me kind of like fire fascinates dogs and small children. Pretty. Scary. Worth poking at and then running away to hide.