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They're all right, somehow. A film teacher of mine used to always quote Northrop Frye as saying "The category judgement precedes the value judgement." As in:
by gavinpc 9y ago
They're all right, somehow.
A film teacher of mine used to always quote Northrop Frye as saying "The category judgement precedes the value judgement." As in: it's a great thriller, but a terrible romance. Moby Dick is hard to classify, and (by this logic) harder to judge. Those approaching it as a novel had every reason to call it a failure. Melville was pushing himself. In jazz I've heard this called "going out." It's something you earn.
His lesser-known works like "Bartleby the Scrivener" and "Benito Cereno" are much more coherent and approachable (they stick to a familiar category), but still have much of that slow, mysterious otherworldly quality and are well worth reading (in my humble opinion).
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno
- wizardforhire 9y agoI'm fascinated by this term "going out". I haven't been able to find anything on it. Do you happen to have any leads or care for discussion?
- gavinpc 9y agoIn a group improvisation, I understand "going out" as one person, usually a soloist, exploring another direction (a rhythmic idea, a motif, anything) where there's some risk that you won't come back, i.e. you might derail the whole thing. I grew up in New Orleans knowing lots of musicians and this is just my recollection. The closest documentation I find is about playing "outside," which is more specifically about using extended or unconventional harmonies. I've heard this usage in college settings, but I was referring to the more general concept. "Stepping out" might be a more mainstream version, and it's apparently the title of like fifty albums. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outside_(jazz) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outside_(jazz) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppin%27_Out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steppin%27_Out