BOC: Immaginos, discontinuity and all the free food you can eat

Bolts of Ungodly Vision scruto19 at POTSDAM.EDU
Mon Nov 24 13:23:06 EST 1997


Chris wrote:
>   It's a sad fact, but it's pretty obvious that it will take a
>seriously major event to get the Oyster Boys (or more particularly
>Albert and Sandy) up off their collective arse to finish the musical
>conversion of Soft Doctrines of Immaginos into the Imaginos
>Mythos/Cycle.
Well....that's somewhat understandable on the part of Sandy P. But Albert
HAS been working in his own way upon the whole saga--hence the inclusion of
Overture and The Girl Who Made Love Blind on _BoH_ and _Malpractice_. Not
to mention the fact that tBS have been playing 3 of the song from the cycle
(Overture, Astronomy, I am the One you Warned me of).  Besides if it's
random access and all that, the easygoing rate of attack by Albert
shouldn't really affect the overall scheme of things for the tale.

>   The Random Access Myth is a beautiful creation.  It's influences are
>scintillating.  We are those for whom it was written, do we not
>therefore hold the necessary powers to complete the masterpiece?
>   If you tell me there's no-one out there with the ability and desire
>to join in a communal authorship and write the next lines, I will not
>believe you.
You're probably right regarding the existence of Immaginos wanna-be's, but
that does not necessitate having "the necesary powers to complete it." The
original ambiance,spirit,vision etc. of the whole cycle-which has at best
been sketchy in its outline (See the FAQ for Albert's suggested song order
for the trilogy)- can never be completely assimilated by others or copied.
I don't think an "a a production of the Immaginos writer's workshop" would
feel right...the influences and attitude of Albert's approach to music w/
the words of Pearlman (who cooked up the whole scheme in the first place
through sundry ways) has something that (for example) Bob Jones couldn't
convey if he took it upon himself to rescore "IatOYWMo" as part of the
overall construct inclusive of whatever Bob Jones thought belonged in the
songcycle.  I think that makes sense.  The IWW might produce something that
sounds Immaginosian, but that certain special something would not be there.

Furthermore, I don't think that being "those for whom it was written" can
conversely lead to the ability to write the bloody thing.  It's like
saying: Joseph Conrad wrote _Heart of Darkness_ and we therefore have the
power to finish the saga of Kurtz's manuscript and its ramifications on the
world.  It just don't jive.

know you by some sort of blackish telescope-like thing,
Jason

ObLetter: being bugged by oversimplicity in a response sent by Robert F.



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