Critical Cultural Aspects About the Player Piano on Radio
I recently read "Agapé Agape", a novel by William Gaddis. By way of
introduction to the author, I attach a quote:
"I see the player piano as the grandfather of the computer, the
ancestor of the entire nightmare we live in, the birth of the binary
world where there is no option other than yes or no and where there
is no refuge." -- William Gaddis
Mr. Gaddis (1922-1998) "was considered one of the best of the
post-World War II Modernist writers" (Britannica.com). He had
a lifelong fascination with the player piano, and had plans to write
a lengthy Social History of the instrument. Instead, for his final
work he wrote Agapé Agape which is a deathbed soliloquy delivered by
the elderly protagonist who himself plans to write a social history
of the player.
I've posted in part because I find myself finally able to answer
Wolfgang Heisig's question, posted December 21st, 1999, wherein he
asks about the source material for a drama aired on German radio:
https://www.mmdigest.com/archives/Digests/199912/1999.12.21.05.html
According to the book's afterword, the [radio] drama was adapted,
by William Gaddis, from this very book.
This post is not exactly an endorsement. The tale is written in a
stream of consciousness style (think Thomas Pynchon) that many people,
including myself, can only take in small doses. However, for those
wishing to expand their literary horizons, Agapé is easily found on
Amazon and other book sites.
Richard Friedman
Upstate New York
[ Ref: http://omeka.wustl.edu/omeka/exhibits/show/mlc50/item/10172 --
[ Written for DeutschlandRadio, "Torschlusspanik" is a one-act monologue
[ broadcast on March 3, 1999, three and a half months after Gaddis died.
[
[ "Agapé" is Greek for divine, unconditional love. (Wikipedia)
[ Gaddis wrote the dramatic monologue about aspects of corporate
[ technological cultures that are uniquely destructive of the arts.
[ But I prefer to believe that the player piano actually furthered
[ the genre of mechanical music. -- Robbie
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