An open letter to John Chalmers

John:

Since MacLaren - evidently in possession of a computer - will not lower
himself to keep abreast of current discourse in the tuning list by
subscribing himself, why don`t you just post his articles to an archive
someplace and save the list members the bother of getting his month-delayed
commentaries?

The latest diatribe against Cage and others illustrates that he is simply
unable to read a text. Nearly all of his comments to citations show that he
has never aquired the ability to read a text for its overt semantic
content, let alone is he in possession of the critical reading or writing
skills that might allow him to form cogent opinions of more complicated
tropes and put them down on paper or disk. His incapacity to read and argue
within an aesthetic context is a fine advertisement for the poverty of his
own education. And his continued attacks upon educational institutions
simply illustrate his total lack of familiarity with the variety of what
may go on within them. Do him a favor: file his columns away someplace and
save him from further public self-demolition and us from further
embarrassing display of such wasted potential.

John Cage�s music and texts deserve serious critical attention, but it is
certainly not to be found in MacLaren�s rantings. I recommend highly the
writings of William Brooks (in the John Cage Reader, Peters Edition),
Stefan Schaedler (in the _MusikKonzepte_ second volume on Cage), and by
Schaedler, Eric de Visscher, and Walter Zimmermann (in John Cage: Anarchic
Harmony, from Schott). My own articles in _MusikTexte_ on the Cage*s late
view of _Harmony_, and in the Schott volume, may also be of some interest.

Daniel Wolf, Frankfurt

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