{"id":430,"date":"2012-10-13T15:41:03","date_gmt":"2012-10-13T19:41:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/?p=430"},"modified":"2012-10-13T15:41:03","modified_gmt":"2012-10-13T19:41:03","slug":"kenzaburo-oe-speaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/?p=430","title":{"rendered":"Kenzaburo Oe speaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Life wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy for me then, because of my brother. He could only use a few words, and has the cognitive ability of a four- or five-year-old, his motor skills about the same. But he has perfect pitch and composes music. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already begun composing at the time. Once there was a concert at the Welfare Center and the volunteer pianist advised me to send copies of my brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s compositions to a famous composer, which I did right away. The composer wrote back, saying the melodies were exquisite, and also sent me a copy of a book he wrote. I brought the book with me. Here\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what it says.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

Ms. Tachibana took out a small hardcover book from her oversized handbag. Ogi motioned her over to some concrete seats shaped like tree stumps.<\/p>\n

When one thinks, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s impossible to escape the agency of language. Even when one thinks in the medium of sound, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an inevitable connection with language. In my case, in order to form a framework in which my thoughts can be clearly expressed in the overall structure of my music and also in the details, I find it necessary to verify things in language. And I leave it up to a decision of the senses. I discover the themes of my music, too, through this sort of process. It has nothing to do with a poetic mood or anything like it.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153This made me think my brother\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s music has limitations. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a bar set up very low, and the music can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t get over that hurdle. Perhaps the composer didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to hurt my feelings by telling me that directly, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why he sent me the book<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153My brother lies on the floor of our apartment, in our public housing apartment, and writes his compositions on music sheets. When he makes a mistake he erases it and then writes down the right notes. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s as if he already has the music in his head and just needs to get the notes down on paper.<\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t explain in words what kind of music he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trying to compose, and I doubt he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s even thinking in words when he does compose. As the composer puts it, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unable to verify things in language<\/em>. . .\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

–Kenzaburo Oe, Somersault<\/em>, pp. 88-89. Trans. Philip Gabriel<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Life wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t easy for me then, because of my brother. He could only use a few words, and has the cognitive ability of a four- or five-year-old, his motor skills about the same. But he has perfect pitch and composes music. He\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d already begun composing at the time. Once there was a concert at the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-quotations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.albumleaves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}