Why John Cage should never have been taken seriously as a composer

[supergee]

If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.

If you develop a preference for food that tastes good, it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse inedible food and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience. Hire me as a chef.

Comments

[bibliofile]

Examples: insects as food. Abstract expressionism as visual art.

[marahmarie]

See, abstract expressionism is art to me. Art that's too perhaps at all realistic is just photorealism and to my mind, that's not art.

But someone could make the same argument about food, I guess, something like: "But insects are food to me. Anything that looks or tastes like animal flesh is just cruel, and to my mind, that's not food."

Neither opinion/stance/take/whatever you want to call it is wrong, not morally, ethically, or otherwise.

(With the caveat that moral arguments can always be made against killing any living creature in order to eat, but then other arguments can be made that everything we eat lives so we should all, in fact, stop eating to show our true enlightenment).