Story/Time: The Life of an Idea (The Toni Morrison Lecture Series)

The book arrived in two days, it's condition was excellent just as described

A fascinating journey into the mind of an extraordinary talent.

In explaining the origins of Story/Time Mr. Jones has much to say about the inspiration of John Cage and cites Cage's stories in Indeterminacy for the birth of his dance. While that may certainly be true, it is equally certainly a half truth. Mr. Jones writes,"Why not focus instead on Merce Cunningham, one of the choreographers I have learned the most from - a great master whose assimilation of Cage's ideas changed the landscape I was to walk into? Perhaps Merce is too close. His form, though much different from mine, is at once too familiar and too particular for my purposes in this book....I choose Cage because he as an icon he is better able to absorb all the symbolism and significations I direct at this tradition I have labored so long to be a part of."Perhaps Merce is "too close" indeed! Mr. Jones is a very bright man but his intelligence makes him far too good at obfuscation. If only he could have been as straightforward and as in command of his ego as Ron Padgett whose contribution to my book of photographs, JOHN CAGE WAS, reads, in its entirety, as follows:"The first thing I liked about John Cage was the combination of his artistic freedom and his last name. The second thing I liked was how difficult his music could be and how easy he could be. The third thing was that he was a composer and I was a poet, and so I could get energy from his work without seeming to owe him much. The fourth thing was that he allowed me to laugh more, silently. The fifth thing was that I knew John Cage was great and he made me feel I didn’t have to know why."It is Padgett's third item that is pertinent here. Mr. Jones, while weaving an intricate web of Cagean provenance for his dance, manages to neglect to mention a rather important fact: he has made a dance that Merce Cunningham had already made. That dance was How To Pass Kick Fall and Run. Mr. Jones is surely familiar with it. It was one of Cunningham's most popular pieces in the 1960's and early 70's. It just happens to feature John Cage sitting onstage drinking champagne and reading stories of one minute duration as the Cunningham dancers perform Cunningham's choreography. Please! How brief does Mr. Jones think our memories are? Why could he not have been large enough, honest enough, to give credit where it so is clearly due? Sad.