read

From the "What is a Classic?" lecture by J.M. Coetzee collected in Stranger Shores, a collection of his essays on literature.

"In Bach nothing is obscure, no single step is so miraculous as to surpass imitation. Yet when the chain of sounds is realized in time, the building process ceases at a certain moment to be the mere linking of units; the units cohere as a higher-order object in a way that I can only describe by analogy as the incarnation of ideas of exposition, conplication, and resolution that are more general than music. Bach thinks in music. Music thinks itself in Bach."

And in counterpoint, I also read "How Opal Mehta Got Kissed, Got Wild, and Got a Life". It's not bad or at least not the utter tripe I was expecting. There are even words like 'asphyxiated' and 'aspartame' in it.