Dialectics: Music and Writing

Music and writing are very similar. Both are commonly used to express ideas, feelings or emotions. Writing, especially poetry, allows the writer to convey a message through several mediums. The first is obviously the words, but the punctuation, the rhythm of the writing and the double meanings add additional layers to a piece of writing, giving it depth and richness. Music does this similarly, but with a larger emphasis on the different instruments making similar or different sounds, beats or rhythms.
However, the definitions that the authors of music or writing prescribe to their works can lead the listener/reader to formulate their own definition or meaning of the piece of work. For example, when someone hears a certain grouping of notes or reads a series of words, they can and do react to those based on who they are as an individual. Therefore, both music and writing allow different people to come up with their own interpretations of what the meaning of the music or writing is.'
Today, in our high velocity culture, everything is becoming mediated. Music is now predominately purchased online and there are millions of pieces of writing on the internet. So it is far more common to see them blended together, such as stories put to music that compliments the meaning of the story. But this idea is not even relatively new; Opera, which is story in music form, has been popular for centuries. Opera is a beautiful example of how music and writing relate to each other. In essence, both music and writing are methods of conveying stories.

Best of Week: Heart of Darkness Discussion

On Friday, we had a Heart of Darkness discussion about how there was no African perspective in the novel. I suggested that Marlow was made black, and this got a lot of people thinking. People began to argue that the story would lose its perspective. However, we also discussed how an African could be incorperated into the story so that we as readers could see the Africans' view of the white men. If the frame narrator was black, or the Russian was black, then we could glean the African perspective. The reason why this was Best of Week is because this discussion really forced us to analyze all of the poins of view of the characters and how they were related; It was the most involved discussion all week. I see myself analyizing future thoughts from multiple points of view now because it provides a better understanding of what the story/discussion is about.