John Cage, from “William Gedney Photographs and Writings”
One of the most important books of my summer was about John Cage: Where the Heart Beats: John Cage, Zen Buddhism, and the Inner Life of Artists, by Kay Larson. (Read my initial post about the book here.)
I have been a long time fan and admirer of Cage. But Larson’s book shortened the distance between the myth and the man himself. As is often the case with any good biography, you walk from the reading with a connection that feels personal and almost intimate. That may be imagined, but something in me has shifted permanently. And that’s the gift.
So it is time to begin again. Summer is now, for us Americans, officially over. Here in Boston the students are back, a transition that is as difficult for these late adolescent invaders as it is for those of us who are here year round. (We are pretty sure that every U Haul truck in operation was blocking a street somewhere within one mile of Commonwealth Avenue this last weekend….) The nights are cooler, the days are shorter. So begins the perennial reminder of those rhythms larger than us, of moving from out to in, of the silent synchronization, unrehearsed, that strips down minion trees to their winter underwear.
So here are a few quotes from Cage that were helpful to me this morning. Please feel free to add some of your own.
What I’m proposing, to myself and other people, is what I often call the tourist attitude – that you act as though you’ve never been there before. So that you’re not supposed to know anything about it. If you really get down to brass tacks, we have never been anywhere before.
I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I’m frightened of the old ones.
Value judgments are destructive to our proper business, which is curiosity and awareness.
As far as consistency of thought goes, I prefer inconsistency.
Art’s purpose is to sober and quiet the mind so that it is in accord with what happens.
What right do I have to be in the woods, if the woods are not in me.
One shouldn’t go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there.
Out of the work comes the work.
Wonderful quotes; thanks. I’ve seen the one about not going to the woods to look for something, and it still strikes me as so important.
Cage has been my muse this summer. He amazes me. Thanks for your comment Altoon. Hope you are well!
[…] art quote comes from Begin Again, at new post at Deborah Barlow’s ever-inspiring bog, Slow Muse. Thanks for […]
Wonderful quotes…”One shouldn’t go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there.” brings up a memory of a quote by Minor White…”I go out (to photograph) to see what presents itself”
Just bought the book, looking forward to settling in…
What geat reminders. Thanks for sharing them.
Reblogged this on Backroom CCS and commented:
One shouldn’t go to the woods looking for something, but rather to see what is there…
Somehow this thought hit home.
“Out of the work comes the work.” Love that.
A Cage quote that has resonated with me for almost 30 years comes from an interview between Cage and the Belgian composer Wim Mertens: “To be able to move one’s attention from one point to another without feeling that one had left something important behind is the feeling which I enjoy having, and which I hope to give to others. So that each person can place his intention originally rather than in a compelled way, or in a constrained way. So that each person is in charge of himself.”
I’ve just discovered your blog while researching art and boredom; it looks like there’s a lot to explore here. Thanks!
Art and boredom? Wow, that’s a topic I would be curious to learn more about. Thanks for sharing this Cage quote. First rate.
I just found this poem by Edward Morgan and thought I would post it here as a share…
Opening the Cage
14 Variations on 14 Words
By Edward Morgan
I have nothing to say and I am saying it and that is poetry.
~ John Cage
I have to say poetry and is that nothing and I am saying it
I am and I have poetry to say and is that nothing saying it
I am nothing and I have poetry to say and that is saying it
I that am saying poetry have nothing and it is I and to say
And I say that I am to have poetry and saying it is nothing
I am poetry and nothing and saying it is to say that I have
To have nothing is poetry and I am saying that and I say it
Poetry is saying I have nothing and I am to say that and it
Saying nothing I am poetry and I have to say that and it is
It is and I am and I have poetry saying say that to nothing
It is saying poetry to nothing and I say I have and am that
Poetry is saying I have it and I am nothing and to say that
And that nothing is poetry I am saying and I have to say it
Saying poetry is nothing and to that I say I am and have it
Ann, Very cool! Thank you.
[…] are two photos of John Cage which I got from the beautiful blog Slowmuse, where you can find a lot about him and his […]
[…] Slow Muse blogger Deborah Barlow–artist, critic–recommended Kay Larson’s recent book on John Cage, Where the Heart Beats. Silence was so significant in Cage’s work and thinking that, given my recent reflections on noise or lack thereof, this seemed the right time to pick up that text. Lo and behold, synchronicity of several kinds. The author, Kay Larson, thanks John Daido Loori, a rōshi of the Mountains and Rivers order of zen Buddhists and long-time abbot of Zen Mountain Monastery near Woodstock, NY. She studied with him beginning in 1994. […]