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Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music QUOTES

Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music QUOTES

1 " The arts are one of our best protections against dogmatism of any stripe and a powerful weapon against complacency. But showing us how rotten reality is and how twisted we are, is not their sole purpose. Nor can it be said that the pursuit of complexity for its own sake is a valid aim. Unfortunately, that seems to be what much 20th-century art was about. Process became synonymous with progress, and a vast array of methodologies—artificially contrived systems and procedures based on mechanical or mathematical concepts—took the place of straightforward communication. "

― Robert R. Reilly , Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music

2 " Other wartime activities included designing a radio-controlled torpedo with actress Hedy Lamarr, with whom he shared the patent. He also syndicated a column of advice to the lovelorn, “Boy Advises Girl”. Some claim Antheil inspired Nathanael West’s novel Miss Lonely Hearts. "

― Robert R. Reilly , Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music

3 " Cage was fooling himself if he thought he was destroying power; he was destroying order. Destroying order creates an opportunity for a certain type of power to ascend. What sort of power that might be became clear from Cage’s infatuation with Mao Tse-tung’s totalitarianism. In the early 1980s, Cage said, “The Maoist model managed to free a quarter of humanity: that gives cause for thought. Today, without hesitation, I would say, for the moment, Maoism is our greatest reason for optimism. "

― Robert R. Reilly , Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music