source file: mills2.txt Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 03:35:16 -0800 Subject: Re: Triadic or tetradic infill? From: Paul Hahn On Thu, 13 Feb 1997, Matt Nathan wrote: > One of the science fiction stories which most disturbed me (you > might want to skip reading it) was about [ . . . ] [loose paraphrase deleted] The story Matt describes is "Unaccompanied Sonata" by Orson Scott Card, which is collected in the eponymous anthology, and probably other places as well. I would _not_ recommend skipping it, though; it is an excellent story. > His priceless > purity of imagination is tainted. Being polluted beyond any > hope of being cleansed, his music has become too ugly to listen > to. The travesty of must stop. He must be punished for > escaping and prevented from producing any more ugliness. > They cut off his hands. This isn't quite correct. Actually, at first all that happens is that one of his Listeners sneaks him a tape of Bach . . . and, afraid of being discovered, he gives himself away when he stops experimenting with fugue, and stops inventing new timbres for fear of reproducing a harpsichord. They just send him away from his home and his Instrument, his life as a composer, after that. The incident with the piano was his second offense, and that's when they cut off his fingers. His third offense is . . . and then after _that_ . . . Read the story. It _is_ disturbing, but it's also one of the best damned stories you'll ever read. --pH (manynote@library.wustl.edu or http://library.wustl.edu/~manynote) O /\ "Do you like to gamble, Eddie? -\-\-- o Gamble money on pool games?" Received: from ns.ezh.nl [137.174.112.59] by vbv40.ezh.nl with SMTP-OpenVMS via TCP/IP; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 21:32 +0100 Received: by ns.ezh.nl; (5.65v3.2/1.3/10May95) id AA06875; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 21:32:01 +0100 Received: from ella.mills.edu by ns (smtpxd); id XA06876 Received: from by ella.mills.edu via SMTP (940816.SGI.8.6.9/930416.SGI) id MAA29230; Fri, 14 Feb 1997 12:28:46 -0800 Date: Fri, 14 Feb 1997 12:28:46 -0800 Message-Id: Errors-To: madole@mills.edu Reply-To: tuning@ella.mills.edu Originator: tuning@eartha.mills.edu Sender: tuning@ella.mills.edu