A modest John Cage centennial tribute

Recently I had the pleasure of delving into the massive library of two close friends, and wanted to have some fun with the collection in some way. Yes, for true Cagean serendipity, I could have subjected the results below to further processing, but I liked the idea of some kind of narrative emerging. And honest, I didn’t expect to find the last entry (for “E”), considering the possible Cage books that could have been found on the premises, but I almost had no choice, since for whatever reason, there were very few titles starting with that letter (and for that matter, “H” as well).

Also, I didn’t use the ladder to get to the shelves next to the ceiling.

Instructions: from a friend’s library, select at random eight books, each title starting with one of the letters of John Cage’s name, to make an acrostic.* Decide for yourself to use or ignore an initial “A” or “The” in titles. For each book, turn to page 100, silently read the entire page and select a complete sentence from that page. If there is no sentence, use whatever text is available. If there is no text at all, choose another book.

*Noting, but in this case ignoring Cage’s interest in mesostics, in which vertical phrases are formed from letters in the middle, rather than the beginning of words

* * * * *

Jacques Lacan and the Philosophy of Psychoanalysis (Ellie Ragland-Sullivan, 1987, University of Illinois Press): “Later it speaks the truth of recognition needs, separation, anxiety, grandiosity, jealousy, love, power aspirations, and so on–a kind of ‘speech’ that cannot be isolated through memory.”

Openness, Secrecy, Authorship (Pamela O. Long, 2001, The Johns Hopkins University Press): “Patents became a means not only for profiting from craft processes and inventions but also for transmitting craft knowledge as artisans migrated across Europe, bringing their craft knowledge or inventions with them and gaining limited monopolies and apprentices in localities that sought new crafts and inventions.”

Hadrian’s Memoirs (Marguerite Yourcenar, 1957, Doubleday Anchor Books): “To me, who had not yet given first place to anything except to ideas or projects, or at the most to a future image of myself, this simple devotion of man to man seemed prodigious and unfathomable.”  

Native Son (Richard Wright, 1940, Harper & Brothers Publishers): “Directly in front of him he saw a small piece of blood-stained newspaper lying in the livid reflection cast by the cracks in the door of the furnace.”

Claire’s Corner Copia Cookbook (Claire Criscuolo, 1994, Plume): “This is a beautiful salad, colorful and delicious.”

Advertising the American Dream (Roland Marchand, 1985, University of California Press): “Then, while critics contemplated this new abyss of advertising vulgarity, Hill recharged Lucy Strike’s anti-sweets campaign with a series of visual blockbusters.”

Glorious Knits (Kaffe Fassett, 1985, Clarkson N. Potter, Inc./Publishers): “Cast off 5 sts at beg of next row, then dec 1 st at armhole edge on foll 4 rows, then 1 st at armhole edge on foll 4 alt rows, at the same time dec 1 st at front edge on next and every alt row until 21 sts rem.”

Empty Words: Writings ‘73-‘78 (John Cage, 1973/1981 edition, Wesleyan University Press): “Leaving from the kitchen, after walking past the reeds at the far end, we return as guests invited to dinner.”

 

Comments

[Susan Scheid]

First of all, what a jazzy new site! (Must be the season for it, as I've made a change-over myself, though not so dramatic as yours.) On to the post, now this is a novel tribute for the Cage Centennial, indeed. I can't imagine he wouldn't approve. The Cage quote at the end is particularly intriguing, but in another way it's the whole collection--what a tremendous variety of books! Now I need to find a huge library and try the same . . .

[bhodgesnyc]

Thank you so much, Susan. I've wanted to do a bit of work on the blog for some time; the original was looking a bit too "Internet 2004." (And TypePad has come out with some interesting new options.)

Yes, quite a library, isn't it! (The owners chuckled, saying I'd found some things they had forgotten they had.) I especially like the sentence from "Glorious Knits," that sounds like it's in some alien variant of English.