[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

[microsound] Re: privilege, boundaries and class



For a Marxist the material relationships present in the production and consumption of the music are necessarily of primary concern. Hence we can't really ask if Adorno COULD fuck...we can only ask questions about the forces that construct him as a "fucker," or one who gets "fucked." :-)

"Adorno is at his best when he critiques the economic
systems and structures that, in his view, are the machinations of culture.
His cutting tone and slicing critique are some kind of relief at the turn of
the 21C... However, when he attempts to turn aesthetics to ethical critique,
he is not so much generalizing as condemning an essential aspect of
existence: the rhythm of repetition that, one comes to realise, touches our
world .. the sun up, the sun down .. we dance, we drink, we sleep, we make
love .. Adorno's lack of understanding of rhythm-- no, scratch that -- that
he can't FEEL rhythm worries the shit out of me .. how did Adorno make love
without rhythm? How did he dance in bed? How did he see the sun everyday?
How did he write sans the rhythm, the very ritual, the discipline and
masochism required to write over and over again?"

Totally. There are so many great thinkers guilty of doing exactly this. Heidegger's writing on art for example. I like these moments though: moments in which the thinker makes a puzzlingly reductive move with respect to a certain phenomenon in the culture in which they find themselves. These moments remind us that thinking is inextricably tied to the thinker's cultural and historical moment. Jazz for Adorno was not our jazz, even if we're listening to the same records - music is never a "timeless classic". As others have pointed out, his critique of jazz was rooted in where and when he lived. It is my opinion that Adorno's comments on jazz say much more about the history of jazz than they do about Adorno. Were his opinions eccentric? Perhaps, but Heidegger was a Nazi. From our perspective it's hard to be more "eccentric" than being a Nazi sympathizer. Perhaps, like Heidegger, he might call this a "blunder" if he had had more time to reflect. Had Heidegger owned a time machine, he never would have supported the Nazis. Had Adorno been privy to our perspective, it would be difficult to believe that he would persist in his obviously shortsighted condemnation. My point: you gotta know when to hold em, know when to fold em. Or...you can't polish a turd.



---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: microsound-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
For additional commands, e-mail: microsound-help@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
website: http://www.microsound.org