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John Cage: Diary: How to Improve the World
“Over 16 years, beginning in 1965, John Cage compiled anecdotes, observations and koanlike tales, originally typing everything on an IBM Selectric and using chance methods to determine the formatting of texts that twist down each page. The Siglio edition preserves the graphic effects, but, more important, it gives a sense of the company he kept during these years―Marcel Duchamp, R. Buckminster Fuller, D.T. Suzuki―and of his passionate feeling about a world locked in a state of perpetual warfare. Cage has a reputation for being a Zen-inspired wit. He was also much more, an intensely engaged moral thinker.” –Holland Cotter, New York Times Now available in an expanded paperback edition, Diary registers Cage’s assessment of the times in which he lived as well as his often uncanny portents about the world we live in now. With a great sense of play as well as purpose, Cage traverses vast territory, from the domestic minutiae of everyday life to ideas about how to feed the world. He used chance operations to determine not only the word count and the application of various typefaces but also the number of letters per line, the patterns of indentation, and―in the case of Part Three, originally published by Something Else Press―color. The unusual visual variances on the page become almost musical as language takes on a physical and aural presence.
While Cage used chance operations to expand the possibilities of creating and shaping his work beyond the limitations of individual taste, Diary nonetheless accumulates into a complex reflection of Cage’s sensibilities as a thinker and citizen of the world, illuminating his social and political awareness, as well as his idealism and sense of it becomes an oblique but indelible portrait of one the most influential figures of the 20th-century American avant-garde.
Collecting all eight parts into a single volume, coeditors Joe Biel and Richard Kraft also used chance operations to render the entire text in various combinations of red and blue (used by Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles for Part Three) as well as to apply a single set of 18 fonts to the entire work. In the editors’ note, Kraft and Biel elucidate the procedure of chance operations and demonstrate its application, giving readers a rare opportunity to see how the text is transformed.
This expanded paperback edition reproduces the 2015 hardback edition, with a new essay by mycologist and Cage aficionado David Rose and, most important, an addendum that includes many facsimile pages of Cage’s handwritten notebook of a ninth part in progress, bringing the reader into compelling proximity to Cage’s process and the raw material from which Diary was made.
While Cage used chance operations to expand the possibilities of creating and shaping his work beyond the limitations of individual taste, Diary nonetheless accumulates into a complex reflection of Cage’s sensibilities as a thinker and citizen of the world, illuminating his social and political awareness, as well as his idealism and sense of it becomes an oblique but indelible portrait of one the most influential figures of the 20th-century American avant-garde.
Collecting all eight parts into a single volume, coeditors Joe Biel and Richard Kraft also used chance operations to render the entire text in various combinations of red and blue (used by Dick Higgins and Alison Knowles for Part Three) as well as to apply a single set of 18 fonts to the entire work. In the editors’ note, Kraft and Biel elucidate the procedure of chance operations and demonstrate its application, giving readers a rare opportunity to see how the text is transformed.
This expanded paperback edition reproduces the 2015 hardback edition, with a new essay by mycologist and Cage aficionado David Rose and, most important, an addendum that includes many facsimile pages of Cage’s handwritten notebook of a ninth part in progress, bringing the reader into compelling proximity to Cage’s process and the raw material from which Diary was made.
- GenresPoetry
200 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2015
11 people are currently reading
264 people want to read
About the author
John Cage
251 books219 followersJohn Milton Cage Jr. was an American composer, philosopher, poet, music theorist, artist, printmaker, and amateur mycologist and mushroom collector. A pioneer of chance music, electronic music and non-standard use of musical instruments, Cage was one of the leading figures of the post-war avant-garde. Critics have lauded him as one of the most influential American composers of the 20th century. He was also instrumental in the development of modern dance, mostly through his association with choreographer Merce Cunningham, who was also Cage's romantic partner for most of their lives.
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music and coincidentally their shared love of mushrooms, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".
Cage is perhaps best known for his 1952 composition 4′33″, the three movements of which are performed without a single note being played. The content of the composition is meant to be perceived as the sounds of the environment that the listeners hear while it is performed, rather than merely as four minutes and thirty three seconds of silence, and the piece became one of the most controversial compositions of the 20th century. Another famous creation of Cage's is the prepared piano (a piano with its sound altered by placing various objects in the strings), for which he wrote numerous dance-related works and a few concert pieces, the best known of which is Sonatas and Interludes (1946–48).
His teachers included Henry Cowell (1933) and Arnold Schoenberg (1933–35), both known for their radical innovations in music and coincidentally their shared love of mushrooms, but Cage's major influences lay in various Eastern cultures. Through his studies of Indian philosophy and Zen Buddhism in the late 1940s, Cage came to the idea of chance-controlled music, which he started composing in 1951. The I Ching, an ancient Chinese classic text on changing events, became Cage's standard composition tool for the rest of his life. In a 1957 lecture, Experimental Music, he described music as "a purposeless play" which is "an affirmation of life – not an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we're living".
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 2, 2020
John Cage is one of my true idols. I think you can keep reading all he ever wrote, all about his life, and it is inspiring in all possible ways. Nothing is this book is the way you would expect. The form of it, the fragmentation. But it is all one with what Cage is all about. Being awake and accepting, but his social an political commenting is very much present through his diary. You really get a sense of what his ideas were about, I felt like I was over hearing him in conversation, and loved all that he said. It feels like being in one of his performances, and I think it is just amazing that you can read him and feel the way he thought, he was an anarchist, and an optimist, and I think we should all read Cage and keep him in our minds and hearts, his thoughts, his idealism is something we truly need, now more than ever. This book goes to my favourites, and I will keep reading it, as I think he would like, opening it by chance, and seeing the world through his eyes.
October 19, 2022
This book isn't for everyone, but once you get used to the dizzying amount of fonts/colors and abrupt topic changes so you can give real consideration to the ideas expressed, it's a delightful read.
John Cage is a brilliant thinker from the 20th century American avant-garde. He uses humor, spontaneity, and references to make social commentary and deliver wisdom. Themes include Zen Buddhism, I Ching, anarchism, education, war, mycology, art, technology, and others.
I enjoyed it and thought the afterword which explains how they used a random number generator to determine which of 18 typefaces to use for each entry was pretty cool.
Favorite quotes:
"There’s a temptation to do nothing simply because there’s so much to do that one doesn’t know where to begin. Begin anywhere. For instance, since electronics is at the heart of the matter, establish a global voltage, a single design for plugs and jacks. Remove the need for transformers and adaptors. Vary not the connecting means but the things to be connected."
"We open our eyes and ears seeing life each day excellent as it is. This realization no longer needs art though without art it would have been difficult (yoga, zazen, etc.) to come by. Having this realization, we gather energies, ours and the ones of nature, in order to make this intolerable world endurable."
"Art instead of being an object made by one person is a process set in motion by a group of people. Art’s socialized. It isn’t someone saying something, but people doing things, giving everyone (including those involved) the opportunity to have experiences they would not otherwise have had."
"Tried conversation (engineers and artists). Found it didn’t work. At the last minute, our profound differences (different attitudes toward time?) threatened performance. What changed matters, made conversation possible, produced cooperation, reinstated one’s desire for continuity, etc., were things, dumb inanimate things (once in our hands they generated thought, speech, action)."
"Our questions live in the world. World is a world of answers."
"Going to school not in order to prepare for a job but just to find out what it is that interests us, what it is you want to spend your life doing."
"People ask what the avant-garde is and whether it’s finished. It isn’t. There will always be one. The avant-garde is flexibility of mind and it follows like day the night from not falling prey to government and education. Without avant-garde nothing would get invented."
John Cage is a brilliant thinker from the 20th century American avant-garde. He uses humor, spontaneity, and references to make social commentary and deliver wisdom. Themes include Zen Buddhism, I Ching, anarchism, education, war, mycology, art, technology, and others.
I enjoyed it and thought the afterword which explains how they used a random number generator to determine which of 18 typefaces to use for each entry was pretty cool.
Favorite quotes:
"There’s a temptation to do nothing simply because there’s so much to do that one doesn’t know where to begin. Begin anywhere. For instance, since electronics is at the heart of the matter, establish a global voltage, a single design for plugs and jacks. Remove the need for transformers and adaptors. Vary not the connecting means but the things to be connected."
"We open our eyes and ears seeing life each day excellent as it is. This realization no longer needs art though without art it would have been difficult (yoga, zazen, etc.) to come by. Having this realization, we gather energies, ours and the ones of nature, in order to make this intolerable world endurable."
"Art instead of being an object made by one person is a process set in motion by a group of people. Art’s socialized. It isn’t someone saying something, but people doing things, giving everyone (including those involved) the opportunity to have experiences they would not otherwise have had."
"Tried conversation (engineers and artists). Found it didn’t work. At the last minute, our profound differences (different attitudes toward time?) threatened performance. What changed matters, made conversation possible, produced cooperation, reinstated one’s desire for continuity, etc., were things, dumb inanimate things (once in our hands they generated thought, speech, action)."
"Our questions live in the world. World is a world of answers."
"Going to school not in order to prepare for a job but just to find out what it is that interests us, what it is you want to spend your life doing."
"People ask what the avant-garde is and whether it’s finished. It isn’t. There will always be one. The avant-garde is flexibility of mind and it follows like day the night from not falling prey to government and education. Without avant-garde nothing would get invented."
November 7, 2024
John Cage's philosophy of life in a nutshell: "get out of whatever cage you find yourself in". This book is a fascinating flow of thoughts, memories, anecdotes, Zen koans, and philosophical observations of one of the most prominent figures in avant-garde music and art. For a full immersion into this flow, I recommend combining both available versions of this book. In the printed version, the text randomly changes font, color, and letter size. In the audio version, Cage reproduced this effect by constantly changing the position of the microphone and the recording volume, turning his diary into a remarkable work of sound art.
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February 28, 2020780.92 C131h 2019
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews