Here's the thing, though… that shabbiness the author so disdains as much as the creature comforts of home that bored and drove him in pursuit of wilderness are the byproducts of human social behavior intrinsic to our survival. The smells and noise and the shabbiness receded, and Barrow became a still life: the dawn of man." It was as if I had walked off the edge of the earth and were now floating free, in the void, staring back. From the mayor, from the electric typewriters in the municipal office building, from the talk of closed-circuit TV, it was only a fifteen-minute walk to reach this…. 71-2): "From this vantage point, I looked slowly in all directions.
Thus it is that he finds himself walking in solitary on the polar ice a half mile north of Barrow's oil operations (pp. Joe left for Anchorage in November, 1975 with a plan of staying through the winter and exploring until the following bicentennial fall.Īlone in the Arctic in the dead of winter? In this context, McGinniss' vision of frontier was decidedly romantic: the rugged individualist against civilization. moreīefore intrepid traveloguists Tony Horwitz and Jon Krakauer, there was Joe McGinniss, who, only a few years removed from the alienation of the Nixon Before intrepid traveloguists Tony Horwitz and Jon Krakauer, there was Joe McGinniss, who, only a few years removed from the alienation of the Nixon campaign trail, decided to seek out the embers of the final American frontier in Alaska before they could be snuffed out by construction and operation of the great pipeline. "The school bell rang / The moment was saved./ But that night in my bed/ I knew very hard/ That I loved Millie Long/ No longer." (p. What wonders might he have penned but for the influence of Milton Babbitt and Pierre Boulez's intellectual bullying! It's sad he squandered a precious year chasing what for him could only be an aesthetic dead end and no small relief that he was nonetheless able to salvage the Chichester Psalms out of it.
(2) Many of the letters published in this volume also serve to document the artistic suffocation Bernstein experienced from the cult of serialism that dominated "serious art" music in the mid-twentieth century, an oppression that left him frustrated and floundering when he should have been enjoying the height of his creative powers.
(1) Bernstein's theses on musical nationalism may have been better articulated in his more popular writings, but what is presented here does indicate a certain consistency of thought throughout his life. Findings is more a book for Bernstein scholars and armchair psychiatrists than fans (although the maestro's concert review self-parody at page 273 is itself worth the price of admission). Those interested in his pedantry can seek out The Unanswered Question. These distill and best exemplify the maestro as a brilliant communicator, educator, composer, and musician. Music-lovers should seek out the elsewhere-published scripts (and YouTube captures) of Bernstein's Omnibus (see The Joy of Music and Young People's Concerts. one runs out of new changes to ring for new audiences. As aptly described in the book description, this work collects a great many of Bernstein's unpublished writings, ranging from undergraduate writing as As aptly described in the book description, this work collects a great many of Bernstein's unpublished writings, ranging from undergraduate writing assignments through theses to letters, some poetry, and page upon page of commemorative speeches and tributes to friends, forebears and peers.
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