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An auditory approximation of dementia - what does that even mean? This is just an album that was inspired by what James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker) read on d

by fbanon 5y ago

An auditory approximation of dementia - what does that even mean? This is just an album that was inspired by what James Leyland Kirby (The Caretaker) read on dementia. It does not have anything to do with actually experiencing dementia.

datameta 5y ago
It means it is intended to evoke something approaching the feelings and mindspace associated with dementia. We have works of art that allude to or generate all sorts of human feelings. While perhaps "the real deal" would be a piece of music written by someone who was actually going through the ordeal themselves it absolutely reminds me of collections of paintings or books created by artists with progressing dementia. As someone who lost a family member to it, I couldn't stand to listen to much of the album because it is just too on the dot.
meowface 5y ago
You're right, but I think the part that's ostensibly analogous is the slow, progressive decline. Which is something that happens with many chronic illnesses, but the notion of slowly losing your mental capacities is one of the worst kinds of decline. The music's coherence and form very gradually breaks down in an unsettling way as an abstract metaphor for the neurological dilapidation. It's of course nothing at all like the experience itself, but it's just an attempt to artistically portray it very abstractly and indirectly. (Side note: I was actually never a fan of this album or its concept after seeing it saturate music forums over the past several years, and all its associated "this album broke me" memes made me consider it pretentious and melodramatic, but the process of writing this post somehow changed my opinion. I think maybe because I suddenly found myself in the frame of feeling compelled to defend it from what I felt was an overly unfair and dismissive critique and became aware of my own cognitive dissonance. I suppose that's one way HN's stereotypical pessimism and negativity also has some benefit. I could see myself in the mirror of your post and I didn't like what I saw.)

by fbanon 5y ago

datameta 5y ago

It means it is intended to evoke something approaching the feelings and mindspace associated with dementia. We have works of art that allude to or generate all sorts of human feelings. While perhaps "the real deal" would be a piece of music written by someone who was actually going through the ordeal themselves it absolutely reminds me of collections of paintings or books created by artists with progressing dementia. As someone who lost a family member to it, I couldn't stand to listen to much of the album because it is just too on the dot.

meowface 5y ago

You're right, but I think the part that's ostensibly analogous is the slow, progressive decline. Which is something that happens with many chronic illnesses, but the notion of slowly losing your mental capacities is one of the worst kinds of decline. The music's coherence and form very gradually breaks down in an unsettling way as an abstract metaphor for the neurological dilapidation. It's of course nothing at all like the experience itself, but it's just an attempt to artistically portray it very abstractly and indirectly. (Side note: I was actually never a fan of this album or its concept after seeing it saturate music forums over the past several years, and all its associated "this album broke me" memes made me consider it pretentious and melodramatic, but the process of writing this post somehow changed my opinion. I think maybe because I suddenly found myself in the frame of feeling compelled to defend it from what I felt was an overly unfair and dismissive critique and became aware of my own cognitive dissonance. I suppose that's one way HN's stereotypical pessimism and negativity also has some benefit. I could see myself in the mirror of your post and I didn't like what I saw.)