My good friend the philosopher Richard Fleming has written a wonderful, long essay called “Want of Sense” – or, alternatively, “homerjoycecage” – and I return to the blog after a long absence to draw some attention to it. In it, he draws an epic historical thread from the Iliad and the Odyssey to Joyce’s complex use of them in Ulysses and Finnegans Wake, and further to John Cage’s use of Joyce in Muoyce and Roaratorio. It’s a wonderful celebration of how language can accrue layers and layers of meaning as words are fused together to allow a multiplicity of references. As always, Richard makes me hear Cage differently, and makes him seem like a glorious next step in a centuries-long process. You can read it here.
Kyle Gann on music after the fact
