A Bad Analogy
This analogy sucks. Well, maybe it’s a metaphor… no wait, it’s a simile. But it still sucks. My pathetic example of an excuse is that it struck in dawnish daylight, as the royal we was marching up a very steep slope to attend an eight-forty class during which the results of a prelim which sucked even more than my simile did were going to be announced. How’s that for a run-on sentence?
The terrible simile occurred while my sensitive little brain was escaping from prelim fear by reminiscing about “Where’s Wally?“, aka “Where’s Waldo?” if you’re one of those true patriot type people. Ever read them? Each massive double page spread consists of hundreds of cartoon figures engaged in all kinds of activities in a wonderfully detailed landscape. Your object is to find Wally/Waldo/Charlie/Holger/Walter (British/US/French/Danish/German, if you care) within this explosion of figures and activities.
One of the best bits of the books was all the interactions going on in the illustrations. There were thousands of little stories and jokes happening to the myriad figures. However, when you first opened the page your initial impulse was one of being totally overwhelmed by the degree of detail. You couldn’t see the wood for the trees; or the Wally for the, errrm, little figures. However, after your eyes recovered from the initial visual onslaught, everything started popping out and making sense, and a whole world opened up
This suddenly reminded me of listening to a new piece of classical music. the initial confusion over all of the complications of the music, followed by the gradual appreciation of all of the individual details as you slowly become accustomed to it. It brought to mind that most popular pieces are more like an individual single-panel cartoon, something which is designed to be understood immediately. With classical there is always something more to find, some new hidden aspect waiting to be uncovered.
Just like Wally.
Told you it was a horrible analogy.
March 27th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
I am not very familiar with the Waldo materials, but you are quite right about the gradual process of becoming familiar with a CM piece, compared with the instant impact of popular music.
Personally, I like to compare exploring CM with exploring a new continent. When the first Europeans hit North America, they probably assumed that it was a rather small piece of land, all similar to what they encountered. Only much later did they find that it was a huge continent with forests, plains, deserts, mountains, and many other kinds of terrains.
Mastering CM is a similar task; not a project for a week or two, but fear not — no one is giving a final exam, or if it is, it’s a take-home!
March 31st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Jon,
I like the continent analogy a lot. I need to think up some more of these… it used to be so much easier, I think my brain has been corrupted by science