(no subject)
4/11/09 20:41![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
owlectomyI have my keyboard out again. (I don't know if the damage from the movers is fixable. I dropped the ball on getting in touch with Yamaha but I'll see what I can do. But either way I can live without that last octave.) And I'm reading some Nodame Cantabile.
I like reading about musicians. Media depictions of writers tend towards this idea that writers are eccentric, and have to wait for lightning flashes of inspiration, or else simply transcribe their traumatic childhoods. But musicians--even if they're child prodigies, there's a sense that being really great takes problem solving and practicality and a great deal of constant effort. The bit in Fujimi Orchestra that I remember the best, more than the romantic stuff, is where Yuuki is angsting about going beyond mere technical proficiency to find a sound that's really his own. Nodame Cantabile is really silly and over-the-top, but I think it does capture some of that. (I find it kind of great that they sell scores of music from Nodame, and sell volumes of manga with accompanying CDs... I didn't spring for those. I just listen to the music on YouTube.)
I like it when books take practice and effort seriously. Sports manga, or music manga, or cooking manga. I like it when they speak to the worthwhileness of persevering to get better at things, and taking pride in what you can do, and being diligent and careful in craftsmanship. And finding joy in all of that.
I think that sometimes we pursue fun because we're too tired to pursue joy, or we don't believe the joy is there to be pursued, or we don't know where or how we could pursue it. That's not a bad thing. Nobody can be on all the time. But it's worth remembering, sometimes, how big a world it is, and what a lot of remarkable things it has in it.
I like reading about musicians. Media depictions of writers tend towards this idea that writers are eccentric, and have to wait for lightning flashes of inspiration, or else simply transcribe their traumatic childhoods. But musicians--even if they're child prodigies, there's a sense that being really great takes problem solving and practicality and a great deal of constant effort. The bit in Fujimi Orchestra that I remember the best, more than the romantic stuff, is where Yuuki is angsting about going beyond mere technical proficiency to find a sound that's really his own. Nodame Cantabile is really silly and over-the-top, but I think it does capture some of that. (I find it kind of great that they sell scores of music from Nodame, and sell volumes of manga with accompanying CDs... I didn't spring for those. I just listen to the music on YouTube.)
I like it when books take practice and effort seriously. Sports manga, or music manga, or cooking manga. I like it when they speak to the worthwhileness of persevering to get better at things, and taking pride in what you can do, and being diligent and careful in craftsmanship. And finding joy in all of that.
I think that sometimes we pursue fun because we're too tired to pursue joy, or we don't believe the joy is there to be pursued, or we don't know where or how we could pursue it. That's not a bad thing. Nobody can be on all the time. But it's worth remembering, sometimes, how big a world it is, and what a lot of remarkable things it has in it.
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(no subject)
5/11/09 12:53 (UTC)When I next sell a book (which will be never at the rate I'm going) one of the first things I'm going to do is treat myself to the rest of the available volumes.
(I am a wimp, though, and read them in the English translation.)