[kj] Melody Maker : Jaz in "Shrink Rap" 16th March 1985

[Mark Kolmar]

I'm about 18 years late and responding to the wrong people, but here you
go:  (in full psycho-babble rant mode... discuss)

Jaz wrote:

> CND
> The admittance of failure. A refusal to accept progress. A refusal to
> acknowledge supernature. A refusal to accept radiation as the next step of
> nature and mutant as the next step of humanity. Anti-progressist.

Might be on to something, apart from the fact that mutations are almost
invariably negative, provided you could get past the radiation sickness.  
The radiation causes your cells to die, and consequences of their death is
toxic to the other, living cells.

Is genetic engineering nature's next step, that grows out of humanity's
built-in desire to control the surroundings?  Or do you reject these ideas
as Franken-food and "playing God"?

> MELODY
> Pure melody in contrast to dissonance. I despise avant garde music for it's
> rejection of melody. Pure melody can be enhanced through contrasts of
> discordancy. In my classical music I'm always searching for the purest
> melody of all. One has to go through insanity to find pure melody.

Now the so-called "avant garde" music employs something analogous to
radiation above -- at least we can consider it as a metaphor.  The
resulting mutation, as it were, is purely psychological and aesthetic.  
Appreciation of chance and chaos is desirable progress.  It is acceptance
of nature's methods and their function in art.

The use of computers brings dominion over an environment of our own
design.  Invocation of a deus ex machina then brings the potential for
pure human expression that reflects humanity and our relationship with the
environment.  In other words, the glitch is also pure melody.

Acceptance of discord does not, however, supercede a more traditional
notion of melody.  As an example, comparison and contrast of Beethoven's
6th Symphony and Xenakis' "La Legende d'Eer" brings a more complete
understanding of both.  Contrast is effective across the totality of
experiences, not only within boundaries of a single "piece" or "work" of
art.

> MORALS
> Redefinition of present day morals is essential. Morals are opposed to the
> laws of nature and that is perversion. Man not understanding sex instinct
> equals war. Morals must be broken. I say screw your best friend's girl to
> see what happens.

Screwing your best friend's girl *is* war.

Redefinition of present day morals is essential precisely because they
need to be re-synchronized with the present circumstances of our
relationship with nature.  Circumstances change dramatically over
thousands of years, yet some factors are inflexible generation to
generation -- not eternal, but subject to change only over a longer period
of time.

For example, effective birth control means the sex instinct has been
partially de-coupled from reproduction.  That is a fundamental but not
complete change.  Sex has been separated from disease only to a lesser
degree.  And to say nothing about sex as it relates to our uniquely human
emotions and higher aspirations.  If the sex instinct is separated from
loyalty, protection, honor, and so on, then it makes us less civilized,
and presents a type of misunderstanding that also equals war.

In war we are brought together into close relationships based on practical
need based on circumstances.  Those relationships are genuine, but they do
not endure beyond the circumstances that created them.  So-called romantic
relationships can be that way too.  That's been my experience and
observation, anyway.

Sex is a powerful force to foster enduring, productive partnerships.  
That is only one potential, but it is an important one.  Rejection of
traditional sexual morality has brought about a situation in which
enduring partnership as a fundamental aspect of human sexuality has been
degraded.  I see that in my own relationships and in others'.  We reject
the traditional morality because it does not match our circumstances.  
Yet we are poorer for the rejection of other terms that still apply.  We
are pack animals.  We have an innate desire to pair off.  I can see that
people yearn for those things -- so ultimately the morality will come back
around in a different form that is in sync with nature.  I think that is
the larger question, above the search we make as individuals these days of
"What am I looking for?"

--Mark