Glens Falls (NY) Online Book Discussion Group discussion

Andy, I will definitely read your story, entitled "Middle". After I do, I'll return here and post. Thank you for letting us know.

Wow, Andy, I think I'll be thinking about that short story for a long time. Wait until our son #3, Bob, hears about it. He's into experimental music. (See: http://www.nime.org/ )

I'll bet he's never heard music like that! :)

Below is a link to some experimental music which Bob authored:
http://www.archive.org/details/Frylab
(Click on the tiny grey "play" arrow in the black box at the top right.)

Below is a link to a video which shows Bob with a group playing experimental music. He produced this. You can see him holding his new kind of experimental instrument which he calls the "Bean" (it's green): ====>
http://www.archive.org/details/Robert...

After listening to that music, I can well imagine the music your characters, Karzov and Michelson, wrote. Very spooky! (g)

Your story is very thought-provoking. I'm wondering what happened to Karzov's wife and Michelson. Or did they go the way of Karzov? I'll have to read the story again. :)

Wow, Joy, I liked your son's music. It's very expressive. That bean is the closest thing to a bird (or a whale song, or a cross between the two). It's funny how different kinds of music come along and make us consider how it resonates with our own experiences. Music can be very mysterious I suppose that way.

Some of this new music doesn't seem to have a melody in the usual sense of the word. It's a completely new sound which is made by computers, as far as I know. The other day I heard some of it on the radio while I was reading. It made a very restful background for my reading activity. It didn't intrude on my thoughts the way a melody might. Instead it simply set a strange kind of mood which I have no words for. I think your comparison to the sound of a whale, or perhaps a dolphin, comes close to describing it.

I wonder if we could associate the melody of a song with the plot of a story?

If so, I wonder what kind of story would have no melody? Mood literature? Poetry?

Andy, I don't know about associating stories and melodies with each other. I'd find that hard to do from scratch. Of course I associate soundtrack music with the movie its from, but that's different.

About music itself and the kind which we mentioned might be compared to the sound of a whale or dolphin, I found the following about the "drone" style of music: ====>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_music
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I also found the following about the "noise" style of music: ====>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noise_music
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I found the terms in an article about John Cale at: ====>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Cale
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Hey Joy,

I guess I was noticing your comment from #5: "It (the drone) didn't intrude on my thoughts the way a melody might."

I figure if a melody is what hooks us into a song, a plot is what hooks us into a story?

A plot will hook me only if I like the writing style. Some writing styles don't appeal to me. So I get turned off even before I'm into the plot. So you might say that a writing style can hook me too.

Hi Andy,
We were talking about genres of music. My son mentioned the expression, "ambient music" to me. I looked it up at wiki: ===>
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambient_...
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It says, among lots of other things, that it:
"exists on the "cusp between melody and texture."
and:
"Ambient Music must be able to accommodate many levels of listening attention without enforcing one in particular; it must be as ignorable as it is interesting."
-Brian Eno, Music for Airports liner notes, September 1978

That's what I was trying to say. (g)

BTW, my son also uses the word "texture" relative to his music. I thought I'd just throw that in. :) I like to add new words and expressions to my vocabulary so that I can discuss things and explain myself more intelligently.

What would say is your favorite writing style? (Or what is a writing style that will hook you in?)

I enjoy a book which contains reflections about life in general. Dorothy Gilman's character, Mrs. Pollifax, did that all the time. Even though the Pollifax books were simple tongue-in-cheek mysteries, it was Mrs. Pollifax and her armchair philosophies which kept me reading.

I also enjoy a book which tells the inner thoughts of the characters. I'm currently reading _The Master_ by Colm Toibin which is a fictionalized biography of parts of Henry James life. The narrative is in the third person, but it still reflects the thinking of Henry James as he goes through life.

I usually don't enjoy the type of book which constantly describes what the characters are wearing, unless the clothing is strongly related to the plot or character development.

I don't enjoy trite or clumsy writing in a book.