As I look across the room, this is what I see:
This observation is part of a more general thought: the private space that we each have is being diminished and hemmed in by an ever-more pervasive public or collective space. This is, of course, a consequence of the growth of the internet and social media. What seemed at first to be an unalloyed good might have its drawbacks.
A few years ago I decided that I wanted to "de-digitize" parts of my life. I was spending too much time online reading ephemera. So I started reading actual books, not Kindle books, every morning. Even more recently, with non-fiction, I have taken up the practice of making pencil notes in every book I read. What am I reading instead of blogs and mass media? The Odyssey, Crime and Punishment, Descartes Meditations on First Philosophy, the King James Bible (so far, just Genesis), Tehillim (the Hebrew Psalms, but in translation), 20th Century French Poetry, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot and so on.
Other ways of de-digitizing: I took up sketching, though that didn't last too long, and journaling, which has, also I now compose with pencil on paper instead of with music software. I have also returned to writing poetry after having let it drop for a few decades.
One result has been to spark the realization that being immersed in the social and mass media space tends to enervate one, leaving you tired and cynical. It also seems that there are some more critical trends, such as that towards what has been called "networked tribalism."
Networked tribalism has rapidly emerged to wage moral warfare in opposition to Israel. We have seen it drive rapid shifts in consequential public perception in the recent past, at both domestic and international levels, in situations ranging from anti-racism (Black Lives Matter) to anti-Russia/Putin/fascism (Ukraine). Tribal moral warfare bypasses traditional media by directly delivering information and moral framing to people using social networks. It has proved highly effective at persuading—and coercing—traditional media companies into alignment with its preferred moral frames.Networked tribalism is a new phenomenon, derived from changes (including changes to our neural wiring that we struggle to understand) in how we process information and connect with others online.
If this is replacing traditional epistemology, then we have a rocky road ahead of us...
I agree with every assertion here, although I cannot follow you to the point of relying entirely on CDs: my budget is too limited, in the first place, and my audio equipment is too imperfect, in the second, i.e. me distinguishing between the CD and the FLAC file is doubtful. I just listened to the first contrapunctus of Bach's Kunst der Fuge from Christophe Rousset's album that's to be released next month, and as much as my immediate impulse was to pre-order it, presuming that it is as splendid as the one track is, I really can't do it; not prudently, I can't.
ReplyDeleteHaven't gotten to the John Robb article yet but I can assure him that my 'neural wiring' hasn't been manipulated by 'online' anything, ha. Still. I did just this morning, because the browser introduced its patent version of AI, give it a first try. 'Leo' more or less regurgitated the information from the Wikipedia pages and then tried to tell me that Guillaume de Machaut was a great exemplar of organum. I wasn't impressed.
I got re-enamored with CDs because they were offering all these box sets at bargain prices, but yes, you have to pick and choose. I supplement that with YouTube where I can find nearly anything I want to hear just a couple of times.
ReplyDeleteI haven't really tried out Leo yet, but I probably will. Ah yes, Machaut, the inventor of organum! Heh.
I saw someone saying that to fix the Washington Post Jeff Bezos needs to fire everyone and hire some real journalists--of course they would all be 70 years old...
All my hundreds and thousands of CDs were ripped in FLAC to my media center long ago, and then backed up across multiple hard drives. Any new purchase gets immediately ripped or, increasingly, I just download the FLACs from a filesharing community and never even take the plastic off the CD purchase. While I still enjoy having the physical artifacts on the walls as decoration, I have to admit that every time I move house and have to box everything, I increasingly doubt the point of it all.
ReplyDeleteThe one place where a CD collection still shines is in liner notes which often contain information on pieces that never made it to the internet. The other day I was listening to Ferneyhough’s Incipits and wanted to read the composer’s own remarks on the piece that I remembered. A web search proved fruitless, but the booklet of the Kairos CD recording had what I was looking for.
Everything you say is true, Anonymous. I haven't taken up the practice of ripping CDs to store them on hard drives, though I certainly appreciate the convenience. If I hadn't moved across the continent and then to another country I would have an enormous collection of both LPs and CDs, but alas, every time I moved I had to give up most of my collection. But I don't plan on making another big move, so I think that my library will remain unscathed. I also greatly prefer actual books to their digital versions, though the latter are a huge advantage when you travel.
ReplyDeleteYes, the artwork and the liner notes alone make CDs valuable. One box set I have has a 300 page booklet!
I cannot imagine not living without my 10,000+ CD collection, the work of my adult life. They bring back memories of the LPs and cassette tapes of my youth. Expensive habit, but much cheaper than buying the originals. Box sets are my addiction and the major labels of classical have satisfied my every desire.
DeleteI once commented on a post of yours regarding a box collection you were so fond of. I have the collection and could only add 'cheers'!
ReplyDeleteThrift stores are pretty much my only cd shopping source these days due to finances. I've added quite a number of collections for a dollar per box as they regard them as 1 cd and are please to keep them out of the landfill. How cool is that!
Thanks for your regular musings. Like box sets, you're not always familiar with what is in them/here.
When I lived in Montreal I used to haunt the numerous secondhand bookstores!
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ReplyDeleteI'm in agreement with all that you say here. My concern is that CD players are no longer being manufactured.
Oh god yes! When I was young and had no money I coveted all those fantastic audiophile systems. Now they have shrunk down to earbuds. I have a nice harmon/kardon all in one unit that I got a decade ago that I hope lasts! I also have a Klipsch computer speaker system with a subwoofer that works really well. There are players available, just not like there used to be.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I think I could have written that comment!
ReplyDeleteCDs are a thing and they come in a package, so it can have a pic, the album cover pic that should be out and showing as I am listening to, for example, "Blonde on Blonde," as I am now, so I can see that image of Dylan in my environment as I imagine, "Visions of Johanna."
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