[Reader-list] Article from the Washington Post: an experiment in context, perception, priorities

[Gora Mohanty]

On Wed, 2007-04-18 at 15:32 +0530, Kiran Jonnalagadda wrote: 
> On 18-Apr-07, at 11:46 AM, Gora Mohanty wrote:
> 
> > Thank you for sharing that. That was just a beautiful, and thought-
> > provoking article. Why just a musical virtuoso performing unnoticed
> > on a crowded platform; most of us go through life in the same way,
> > blind to the beauty around us. If sunset happened once in a thousand
> > days, what paeans of praise would be written to it?
> 
> Before we start blaming people for failing to appreciate beauty  
> unless it is pointed out to them...

Maybe my words were too strong? My intention was not so much to assign
blame as to enjoin appreciation of the apparently humdrum. To tell the
truth, if the equivalent had happened on the Delhi Metro, I would
probably have avoided the encounter for fear of having to decide whether
to give money, and how much to give. The article itself is quite
nuanced, and does not seek to point fingers arbitrarily, though there
is an overall tone of disapprobation. I guess that what I agreed with
is the point that it is all too easy to get caught up in a daily
routine, and fail to see the beauty hidden in the mundane.

> http://sawlady.com/blog/?p=27
> 
> The thing is Joshua Bell is a great violinist but he doesn’t know how  
> to busk. There are violinists who are not even close to being as good  
> as he is (such as Jim Grasec or Lorenzo LaRock), yet they get crowds  
> to stop and listen to them. 
[...]

Maybe so. I am not at all conversant with Western classical music, nor
with any of the people involved. But the article does say that he did
make an energetic performance. Maybe the lack of street savvy could
explain a certain lack of involvement, but it hardly covers the fact that
only seven people out of a rush hour crowd took any interest in the
performance of a world-class violinist. As a personal, anecdotal
counterpoint, people did stop to listen to the harpist on the Paris
Metro. In my opinion, that is because the French make a special effort
to make time for for leisure and the arts, certainly more so than
Americans (and, sadly Indians too, these days).

Regards,
Gora