We'll Miss Almost Everything

[yovargas]

A lovely piece from NPR, well worth reading:

Imagine if you'd seen everything good, or if you knew about everything good. Imagine if you really got to all the recordings and books and movies you're "supposed to see." Imagine you got through everybody's list, until everything you hadn't read didn't really need reading. That would imply that all the cultural value the world has managed to produce since a glob of primordial ooze first picked up a violin is so tiny and insignificant that a single human being can gobble all of it in one lifetime. That would make us failures, I think.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/monkeysee/2011 ... everything

I personally make the strongest effort to be "well versed" in modern music and, despite focusing almost entirely on music of the last 50-60 years and mostly a handful of genres within that time span, the daunting realization that you'll never hear (much less absorb) even a small fraction of the good stuff is at times quite overwhelming.

[Inanna]

Overwhelming and exciting.

[Frelga]

That part is fine. What's depressing, given this proposition, is the amount of sheer dreck one is subjected to in that same lifetime.

[Primula Baggins]

I've been thinking about that a bit these days. With the greatly reduced stress in our household lately (and yes, unemployment is enormously less stressful than the employment in question had become), our evening relaxation has begun to include more actual reading time and even watching worthwhile films now and then, in among the cooking and home repair shows. I like it a lot better. I hadn't realized how far down the path of mindlessness we had gone in the past six years.

[Aravar]

Actually, yovargas, I think that the NPR quote is based on the fallcay that if it's not on the list it's of no value. For example theres been a few 1001 books/ recordings/ films to read/listen to watch before you die recently. I recall looking at the classical recordings one and I have heard most of the pieces but not necessarily the chosen recordings. I can't think that that means that the authors regard the other recordings as culturally valueless, its just that in their opinion these are the best.

IIRC in the films book, while all three Star Wars films are included, but only ROTK is. I don't think that means that you shouldn't wathc FOTR or TTT.

[vison]

I've missed a lot, seemingly.

But.

I have read so many wonderful books that it's hard to worry about the ones I haven't read. I'm actually pretty sure I've read more than the proposed 6,500 and I'm still 13 years from 80.

It's true, though. We can never do it all.

As for music? I just don't "do" music. I can't read and listen to music at the same time - after a few minutes I don't hear the music any more. I hate noise in the house, too. When I'm alone in the house, I want silence. (Except if I'm alone at night, then the TV is one low just for "company" even if I'm not watching it.) In the car, I enjoy music, when I'm alone.

Films are another art form I don't take the time for, usually. I know I'm missing a lot, but time waits for no woman.

[Primula Baggins]

I can't read and listen to music at the same time - after a few minutes I don't hear the music any more.

Me, too. Exactly. I don't mind it when I'm puttering around the house, and it helps a lot when I'm doing numbingly tedious bits of editing. But if music is playing while I'm reading for pleasure, I only hear it if I'm not focused on reading—a sign that I'm not enjoying the book.

And I can't listen to radio stations that have commercials—not ever, if I control the knob. Any pleasure or relaxation that occurs during a nice song is shattered when five idiots in a row start shouting at me about buying stuff.