Friends are Electric

To put it another way, why do we not read poetry anymore? Most people give up on poetry the moment they finish their last English course, be that in high school, college or university. Is it that poetry lacks the ability to convey deep and important meaning between human beings? Is it that we have developed newer and better ways of sharing this message?

Or is it just that society has chosen a different form of writing to be the medium by which we exchange thoughts and emotions. Poetry has its place and is still of great value, but it has been long since supplanted by the novel as the primary literary form. The novel too will be replaced as the primary, but never shall it fully disappear for some messages are best for it.

A response to a currently circulating article from 2003.

The premise is that American’s don’t like jazz because they are a visually focused, ADD society which has lost its ability to appreciate high art. The argument takes on the fact that much pop music is vocally driven and assigns the reason for this to the fact that American’s cannot relate to music without it. The author extends this to the appreciation of visual arts, where he makes the claim that Americans cannot appreciate art which lacks something which they recognize. That, for instance, Voice of Fire is less liked than Creation of Adam because the later is easier to understand due to having recognizable figures from stories well known to those viewing the work, while the earlier is much more abstract and minimalistic and thus much more challenging to understand. Ignoring, of course, the relative fame of each work. Take Mondrain’s Composition 11 in Red, Blue and Yellow and Le Radeau de la Méduse by Théodore Géricault for a similar comparison.

The argument presented is tainted by an all too common nearly anti-American elitism which we of other countries often take. The first hint of such taint is the lack of discussion of music in other English speaking countries, such as Canada, Great Briton, Australia, New Zealand or even India. The author likely lacks personal experience of these countries and places, so he can be forgiven on this front. It must be noted, however, that singling out the United States is a ploy often driven by the rest of the world’s subconscious loathing-envy relationship dichotomy with the Americans. If nothing else, a quick look and presentation of sales numbers in the UK would have been in order, as such information is available.

Moving on from the subconscious, let us return the heart of the matter. American’s don’t like jazz because they cannot accept and understand abstract art. The abstract was the central feature and philosophy of the modern movement in the arts; musical, visual and performance. It was a reaction to that which came before, the romantic. No one considers jazz to be part of the modernity movement, however, but the generalities still stand. Jazz was less structured than the romantic music which preceded it, while still maintaining similar instrumentation. In the arts, the modern replaced with abstraction the vivid, photosimilar paintings of the previous period.

In architecture, modernity lead to buildings with high utility and little ornamentation. Architects were some of the first to react to modernity itself by reintegrating aspects of ornamentation to increase the aesthetic appeal of their structures, transforming the understanding of the movement. It was not that unadorned buildings did not function perfectly appropriately for their purpose, it was that the statement they made was insufficient to these first post-modern architects desires. Post-modernity is the name of the age recently closed, where the artists decided that they no longer held with the idea that you can communicate everything through abstraction alone. Abstraction has its place, but just because you can reduce something further does not make it necessarily desirable. I say post-modernity has passed since this is the consensus that is currently forming, although considerable debate exists as to whether post-modernism existed at all. We would likely find the author of the article in question would be one who denies the post modern and by extension its passing.

What is the meaning of all this? In short, the experiment that jazz represented has been replaced. We have moved on, which is not to say that jazz, like pure utility, has no place. Its place, however, is no longer the main stage. Jazz does not fit in what, for lack of a better term, we shall call the post-postmodern. To pretend that jazz is no longer commonplace because we are too unintelligent to properly grasp its meaning is pure and dangerous fabrication. If we lack the capacity to understand it, it is because it no longer resonates as it once did. Contemporary musicians have jazz, what came before and what came after to work with.

The purpose of the artist is not to create mocking works which the common human is incapable of understanding for the sole purpose of this elitism. The artist does their best to present the feelings, interactions and images they experience in a form which they feels best expresses it. Separating form from purpose is a meaningless endeavor doomed to create emotionally dead works which are, quite honestly, boring. Art in the style of Composition 11 in Red, Blue and Yellow created now might rightfully be accused of elitism, since we have moved on. The same with traditional jazz. It has its place, and certainly a too direct comparison of musical and visual arts leads to false results, but I feel as though the comparison stands.

In short, humans, the world and the arts have all moved on. Criticizing any of the above from moving on is foolhardy and wrongheaded. There is nothing wrong with not moving on, it is not necessary. I often wonder why certain types of alternative rock from the 1990s had to cease being produced, but I do not attack those who fail to grasp the greatness of many of these works and accuse them of being intellectual light weights. I may question their taste, however.

And a final point, the classical, and I use classical to mean premodern orchestral music, form of musical appreciation is outdated. I believe that the popular music, popular to mean all that has come since jazz (excluding country) form of appreciation is superior. Traditional folk music is meant to be played and enjoyed through participation and by just being in its presence. People would be doing things, preparing foods, talking and preforming other similar tasks during the performance. This is closer to the popular music form of presentation, which involves plenty of background noise of people enjoying more than just the auditory experience of the music itself, since music has always been about much more than just the sound. There is nothing wrong or wrongheaded about listening to music in silence, taking it all in. There is also nothing wrong about experiencing it as something else, as a background sound or as a participatory experience.

Whether spoken truly or not, the above says it all. The folly of the attempted escape from Paris of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette may serve as an important lesson to those who find themselves beaten.

The bread riots were an important contributing factor to the outcome of the French Revolution, and in fact may be the single most important reason for its success. The widespread starvation created a kind of class consciousness in the peasants of France, which pushed for changes to the way government was run. Their starvation, in a sense, awoke them to their power. The most obvious goal they sought was an end to their hunger.

To their credit, the monarchy did make an attempt to overcome the famine. One cannot judge the people, however, for remaining angry at the failings of the monarchy. Famine was not the only cause of the revolution, after all. However rightly, the king was judged by the outcome of his actions (or queen, as the case may be). And they had failed. Naturally this increased ill will towards the royal family. Ill will was already at quite high levels by this point, and justifiably the royals began to fear for their lives.

At this point the supposed statement was made. “Let them eat cake.” Evidence does not support that it was ever said, especially by Marie Antoinette. The statement is used as evidence of the royal’s lack of understanding of the situation in which they found themselves. What it means is that the royals, in their plenty, could not comprehend the suffering of the masses. Since they had plenty of food, even very rich delicacies (the cake) they failed to see that others did not. It is also important to note that a better translation of “Qu’ils mangent de la brioche” would translate brioche as an egg bread, since it was not a cake as we understand it, but rather a very egg and butter rich bread.

Whether or not such a thing was ever said is irrelevant, since the next action of the king shows his complete lack of comprehension of the situation equally well.

The royals, while very likely blind to a great many things, were not blind to the danger of their situation. They fled Paris for a monarchist stronghold near the border of Holland. They dressed themselves as servants to a Russian baroness and fled in a very luxurious stage coach. When the party stopped to exchange horses, the king insisted on resting. He was recognized and they were captured later that morning, just a few kilometres from their goal. Why one would stop for a rest when fleeing for their life is a strange thing indeed.

An even more critical interpretation can be found on pages 499-501 of John Ralston Saul’s Voltaire’s Bastards.

What does this all mean? What is the lesson? Aside from the obvious, of course, which is to hide as quickly as possible if you are wanted dead.

The real lesson is that if you find yourself in a position of authority you must be receptive to the needs and problems of the people. The very worst type of bias is the idea that what benefits you most must necessarily benefit everyone most.

While, at least in Ontario, the history curriculum is incredibly weak, I am fairly certain most of us are familiar with the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. A truly important point in the development of the Canadian nation.

While this was not the only important event in the Seven Years War, it can be seen as a pivotal one, the turning point in the Canadian theater of the conflict. The battle itself predicted the outcome of the war and shall be considered one in the same for the sake of argument.

In broad terms, a global perspective, the battle itself and the war by extension was a defeat of the French Empire by the British Empire on a generally worldwide scale. The French colony of New France was merely a pawn in negotiations at the end of the war. It is well known that had the British seen more prestige or a larger profit to be made in sugar plantations than they had in the fur trade of what would become Canada, then perhaps France would have regained their colony. However, the French Empire ceded New France, the colony of Quebec, to the British.

From a French nationalist perspective, the battle and the war were a humiliating loss. The English were an oppressive, occupying power, not liberators. While little attempt was made to assimilate the French Canadians, this perspective is not unreasonable.

From a British nationalist perspective, it was a victory. The allowances made for the French Canadian people were seen as unreasonable, especially in the 13 American colonies.

Neither of these perspectives, however, represents what is needed from a Canadian perspective. The forbearers of one segment of Canadians were defeated by the forbearers of another part of the population. Since Canada is a multicultural experiment this poses some difficulties. How, for example, does someone celebrate our shared history while some see it as a triumph and others as a defeat?

I am myself largely of British ancestry, while possessing some French as well. I grew up in a French Canadian town outside of Quebec. The battle and the war were treated as a victory. I do not think this is the way to deal with the event. It is too simplistic and I feel as though it places too much emphasis on our historical inclusion in the British Empire. Certainly, we are members of the British commonwealth and have much shared history and culture, but we are an independent nation with our own complex and interesting history and culture separate from our partners in the commonwealth and it is time we embraced this.

The question is how do we interpret this battle, this war. Canada was founded largely through an alliance between both French and English Canadians. Their work together lead to confederation. Without the other party, neither the French nor the English could have been successful. Certainly other word events, such as the British actions towards the Confederate States of America, helped found the nation of Canada. Without the work of the Canadian Fathers of Confederation, however, Canada as we know it would not have worked out.

There were a great many years between the 1763 end of the war and the formation of the provinces of Upper and Lower Canada in 1791, their unification in 1841 and the final creation of the Dominion of Canada in 1867. One cannot discount the numerous important events that took place in these intervening years. However, these years, as well as all the years since 1867, do lend something to our shared understanding of the battle and thus the war.

Since 1791, perhaps earlier, Canada and that which preceded it has had two European cultural groups living to a large degree peacefully side by side in the same place, and since 1841 under the same government. For no less than 169 years this has gone on. Aside from a brief American incursion during their War of Independence and during the War of 1812 and a few scattered and minor rebellions, Canada has been largely peaceful since the Seven Years War.

So how then do we interpret the Seven Years War and the pivotal Battle of the Plains of Abraham? As a victory or a defeat? As a victory and a defeat?

We interpret it as the event which put together, in the same place, two different but similar cultural groups and allowed them to act constructively together in the future to build the nation we now call Canada. The result of the battle may have been a defeat for the French Empire, but French Canadians have been able to practice their culture and speak their language ever since. The result may have been a victory for the British Empire, but that empire is no more.

The result for Canada was that the right people were able to work together to found a truly interesting experiment. Not a perfect entity. Not a static entity. Not anything that had been tried yet. An experiment. The Canadian Experiment. And while not all aspects of this grand experiment have been successful, overall the experiment has been successful and warrants further study.