Apologies for the delay, my reponse will be short anyhow, as there's some film music to make urgently. You are right that I overreact to the part about music - in fact i was very touched by it. I read it by the time when i was playing in a rock band. It was a great band - we worked very hard, and learned to play together, to communicate ideas, etc. (it was not that much 'rock', actually somewhere between King Crimson and Lounge Lizards, with lot of improvs). I learned a lot thanks to that experience - not only as musician, I understood much of what colective work is about, etc. When I read Bloom's comments I really felt that he did not know what he was talking about - he was reducing some rich sphere of living and creating to some educational problems he was thinking about. No need to repeat what I wrote earlier in this exchange anyhow. Of course, think, I disagree with his general atittude towards society and his role within it, as with a lot of his prefernces, but what struck me first was what he wrote about music. It's a good example of his ideas, and not an acciedental one. To sum up: the worst thing about this text is that it touhes a real problem, but it offers a simplistic solution. I do think there's a problem about the way people are educated. But Bloom's solutions won't be of much help. Thanks, Marcin From: Herb Levy <herb@eskimo.com>
Bloom's whole book is about what he thinks is morally harmful in recent Western culture overall. I'm not PARTICULARLY offended by his characterization of particular musical forms compared to how he characterizes, say, aspects of contemporary literature, media or other behavior.
If you're not simply over-reacting to his writings about music, you're certainly under-reacting to the rest of his book.