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Dinesh

Dinesh club

Posted: 22 Feb 2020

Taken: 22 Feb 2020

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Excerpt •
LANGUAGE AND SILENCE •
Author •
George Steiner •
Book Published - - 1958 •

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Photo replaced on 22 Feb 2020
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Urban Music

Urban Music
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 Dinesh
Dinesh club
There is a sociological footnote relevant to these turnings fo literature toward music. In the united States, and to a growing extent in Europe, the new literacy is musical rather than verbal. . . . The new middle class in the affluent society reads little, but listens to music with knowing delight. Where the library shelves once stood, there are proud, esoteric rows of records albums and high fidelity components. …

There are complex social and psychological reasons for this. The tempo of urban and industrial life leaves one exhausted at night-fall. When one is tired, music, even difficult music, is easier to enjoy than serious literature. It stirs feeling without perplexing the brain. It allows even those who have little previous training access to classic masterpieces. It does not separate human beings into islands of privacy and silence as does the reading of a book, but conjoins them in that illusion of community which our society strives for. Where Victorian wooers sent garlands of verse to their intended, the modern swain will choose a record explicitly meant as background to reverie or seduction. . . . Page 30
4 years ago.

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